military purposes because Spain had not succeeded in furnishing itself
with a central government or a commander-in-chief. It had been wasted
in constitutional debates of the most futile kind. To every one, except
to certain of the more selfish members of the Juntas, it was clear
that a way must be found out of the existing anarchy. Three courses
seemed possible: one was to appoint a Regent, or a small Council of
Regency, and to entrust to him (or to them) the conduct of affairs.
The second was to summon the Cortes, the old national parliament of
Spain. The third was to establish a new sort of central government,
by inducing each of the existing Juntas to send deputies, with full
powers of representation, to sit together as a ‘Supreme Central Junta’
for the whole realm. The project of appointing a Regent had at first
many advocates: it occurred to both Castaños and Palafox, and each (as
it chanced) pitched upon the same individual as most worthy of the
post[354]. This was the Archduke Charles of Austria, the sole general
in Europe who had won a military reputation of the first class while
contending with the French. He would have been an excellent choice--if
only he could have been secured. But it did not take much reflection
to see that if Austria allowed her greatest captain to accept such a
post, she would involve herself in instant war with Bonaparte, and if
such a war broke out the Archduke would be wanted on the Danube rather
than upon the Ebro. There was no other name likely to command general
confidence. Some spoke of the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo[355], the
last prince of the Spanish royal house who remained in the realm. But
he was an insignificant and incapable person, and much discredited by
his dallyings with Murat in the days before the insurrection had begun.
Clearly he would be no more than a puppet, worked by some astute person
behind the viceregal throne. Other names suggested were those of the
young Dom Pedro of Portugal (son of the Prince-Regent John), and of
Prince Leopold, the son of Ferdinand IV of Sicily. The former was a
grandson, the latter a nephew of Charles IV. Both therefore were near
to the throne, but both were foreigners, young, untried in matters of
state, and utterly unknown to the Spaniards. Dom Pedro’s claims were
not strongly pushed, but the Sicilian court made a strenuous attempt
to forward those of Prince Leopold. Their ambassador in London tried to
enlist the support of the English Government for him: but Canning and
Castlereagh were anxious to avoid any appearance of dictating orders
to Spain, and firmly refused to countenance the project. Before their
reply came to hand, King Ferdinand (or rather that old intriguer, his
spouse, and her son-in-law the Duke of Orleans) sent the prince to
Gibraltar, on a man-of-war which they had obtained from Mr. Drummond,
the British minister at Palermo. By lending his aid to the plan this
unwise diplomat almost succeeded in compromising his government. But
most fortunately our representatives in Spain nipped in the bud this
intrigue, which could not have failed to embroil them with the Juntas,
none of whom had the least love for the Sicilian house. When the
_Thunderer_ arrived at Gibraltar [August 9] Sir Hew Dalrymple--then
just on the eve of starting for Portugal--refused to allow the prince
to land, or to distribute the proclamations which he had prepared.
These were the work of Leopold’s brother-in-law, Louis Philippe of
Orleans, who had accompanied him from Palermo with the design of
fishing in troubled waters, a craft of which he was to show himself
in later days a past master. If Leopold should become regent, Orleans
intended to be the ‘power behind the throne.’ Dalrymple detained the
two princes at Gibraltar, and when he was gone Lord Collingwood[356]
took the same attitude of hostile neutrality. Tired of detention,
Louis Philippe after a few days sailed for London, in the vain hope of
melting the hearts of the British Cabinet. The Sicilian prince lingered
some time, protesting against the fashion in which he was treated,
and holding secret colloquies with deputations which came to him from
many quarters in which the Junta of Seville was detested. But there
was no real party in his favour. What benefit could come to Spain from
the election of a youth of nineteen, whose very name was unknown to
the people, and who could help them neither with men nor with money,
neither with the statesmanship that comes from experience, nor with the
military capacity that must be developed on the battle-field? After
remaining long enough in Spanish waters to lose all his illusions,
Prince Leopold returned to his mother in Sicily[357]. There had
never been any foundation for a persistent rumour that he was to be
made co-regent along with the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo and the
Conde de Montijo. Not even the least intelligent members of the Juntas
would have consented to hand over the rule of Spain to this strange
triumvirate--an imbecile, a boy, and a turbulent intriguer. There was
about as much chance that another vain project might be carried out--an
invitation to General Dumouriez to take command of all the Spanish
armies. Yet this plan too was seriously brought forward: the Frenchman
would not have been unwilling, but the Spanish officers, flushed with
their recent successes, were not the kind of people to welcome a
foreign leader, and one whose last military exploit had been to desert
his own army and go over to the enemy.
[354] See Arteche, iii. 118.
[355] First cousin to Charles IV, being the son of the Infante
Luis, and brother of Godoy’s unfortunate wife.
[356] Napier is wrong in hinting that Canning lent himself to the
Sicilian scheme (i. 177, 178) in order to disoblige Castlereagh.
Collingwood’s dispatches show that he opposed it, as much as
did Dalrymple, and thereby won approval from his government
(_Collingwood Correspondence_, ii. 216, 217).
[357] He sailed on Nov. 4 (_Madrid Gazette_).
Much more specious, at first sight, than any project for the
establishment of a regency, was the proposal mooted in many quarters
for the summoning of the Cortes--whose name recalled so many ancient
memories, and was connected with the days of constitutional freedom in
the Middle Ages. But not only had the Cortes been obscured by the long
spell of autocracy under the Hapsburg and Bourbon kings, but it was by
its very constitution unsuited to represent a nation seeking for a new
and vigorous executive. It was full of mediaeval anomalies: for example
the Asturias had never been represented in it, but had possessed (like
Wales in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) separate governmental
machinery of its own. This might have been altered without much
difficulty, but it was more fatal that the distribution of seats in the
lower estates represented an archaic survival. Many decayed towns in
Castile sent members to the Cortes, while on the other hand the warlike
and populous province of Galicia had only one single vote. To rearrange
the representation on a rational basis would take so long, and cause
so much provincial jealousy, that it was recognized as practically
impossible.
There remained therefore only the third plan for creating a supreme
government in Spain--that which proposed that the various existing
Juntas should each send deputies to some convenient spot, and that the
union of these representatives should constitute a central authority
for the whole realm. This scheme was not so clearly constitutional
as the summoning of the Cortes would have been, nor did it provide
for real unity of direction in so complete a way as would have been
secured by the appointment of a single Regent. But it had the practical
advantage of conciliating the various provincial Juntas: though they
sacrificed their local sovereignty, they obtained at least the power
of nominating their own masters. In each of them the more active and
ambitious members hoped that they might secure for themselves the
places of delegates to the new supreme assembly. Accordingly the
Juntas were induced, one after another, to consent to the scheme.
Public opinion ran so strongly in favour of unity, and the existing
administrative chaos was so clearly undesirable, that it was impossible
to protest against the creation of a Supreme Central Junta. Some of the
provinces--notably Murcia, Valencia, and Granada--showed a patriotic
spirit of self-abnegation and favoured the project from the first. Even
Galicia and Seville, where the spirit of particularism was strongest,
dared not openly resist the movement. There were malcontents who
suggested that a federal constitution was preferable to a centralized
one, and that it would suffice for the provinces to bind themselves
together by treaties of alliance, instead of handing themselves over to
a newly created executive. But even in Aragon, where federal union with
Castile seemed more attractive to many than complete incorporation,
the obvious necessity for common military action determined the
situation[358]. Every province of Spain at last adhered to the project
for constructing a Supreme Central Junta. Even the narrow-minded
politicians at Seville had to assume an attitude of hearty consent. But
their reluctance peeped out in the suggestion which they made that the
Junta should meet, not at Madrid, but at Ciudad Real or Almagro in La
Mancha, places convenient to themselves, but obscure and remote in the
eyes of inhabitants of Asturias or Galicia. Their aversion to Madrid
was partly caused by its remoteness from their own borders, but much
more by jealousy of the Council of Castile, which still hung together
and exercised local authority in the capital. Other Juntas showed
their aversion for the Council in the same way, and ultimately the
place selected for the gathering of the new government was the royal
residence of Aranjuez, which stands to Madrid much as do Versailles
or Windsor to Paris and London. This choice was an obvious mistake:
the central government of a country loses in dignity when it does not
reside in the national capital. It seems to distrust its own power or
its legality, when it exiles itself from its proper abode. At the best
it casts a slur on the inhabitants of the capital by refusing to trust
itself among them. Madrid, it is true, is not to Spain what Paris is
to France, or London to England: it is a comparatively modern place,
pitched upon by Philip II as the seat of his court, but destitute of
ancient memories. Nevertheless, it was at least infinitely superior to
Aranjuez as a meeting-place. On geographical or strategical grounds
they are so close that no advantage accrues to one that does not belong
to the other. But for political reasons the capital was distinctly
preferable to the almost suburban palace[359]. If the existence of the
Council of Castile so much disturbed the Junta, it would have been
quite possible to dissolve that discredited body. No one would have
made any serious effort in its favour, even in the city of its abode.
[358] Note the federalist views of the Aragonese Miguel Principe,
quoted by Arteche (ii. 121).
[359] Both Florida Blanca and Jovellanos were in favour of making
Madrid the meeting-place. The Andalusians defeated them.
SECTION VI: CHAPTER III
THE ‘JUNTA GENERAL’ IN SESSION
The provincial Juntas, when once they had consented to sacrifice
their local sovereignty, made no great delay in forwarding their
representatives to the chosen meeting-place at Aranjuez. The number of
deputies whom they sent to the Supreme Central Junta was thirty-five,
seventeen provincial Juntas each contributing two, and the Canary
Islands one. The Biscayan provinces, still wholly in the possession
of the French, had no local body to speak for them, and could not
therefore choose deputies. The number thus arrived at was not a very
convenient one: thirty-five is too few for a parliament, and too many
for an executive government. Moreover proportional representation was
not secured; Navarre and the Balearic Islands were given too much
weight by having two members each. Andalusia, having eight deputies
for its four Juntas of Seville, Jaen, Granada, and Cordova, was
over-represented when compared with Galicia, Aragon, and Catalonia,
which had each no more than two. The quality of the delegates was very
various: among the most notable were the ex-ministers Florida Blanca
and Jovellanos, who represented respectively the better sides of the
Conservative and the Liberal parties of Spain--if we may use such
terms. The former, trained in the school of ‘benevolent despotism’
under Charles III, was a good specimen of the eighteenth-century
statesman of the old sort--polite, experienced, energetic, a ripe
scholar, and an able diplomat. But he was eighty years old and failing
in health, and his return to active politics killed him in a few
months. Jovellanos, a somewhat younger man[360], belonged in spirit
to the end rather than the middle of the eighteenth century, and was
imbued with the ideas of liberty and constitutional government which
were afloat all over Europe in the early days of the French Revolution.
He represented modern liberalism in the shape which it took in Spain.
For this reason he had suffered many things at the hands of Godoy,
and emerged from a long period of imprisonment and obscurity to take
his place in the councils of the nation. Unhappily he was to find that
his ideas were still those of a minority, and that bureaucracy and
obscurantism were deeply rooted in Spain.
[360] He was born in 1743.
Of the other members[361] of the Supreme Junta, the Bailiff Valdez and
Francisco Palafox, fresh from his brother’s triumphs at Saragossa, were
perhaps the best known. Among the rest we note a considerable number of
clergy--two archbishops, a prior, and three canons--but not more than
might have been expected in a country where the Church was so powerful.
Military men were not so strongly represented, being only five in
number, and three of these were militia colonels. The rest were mainly
local notables--grandees, marquises, and counts predominated over mere
commoners. Some of them were blind particularists, and a few--like the
disreputable Conde de Tilly--were intriguers with doubtful antecedents.
The whole body represented Spain well enough, but Spain with her
weaknesses as well as her strong points. It was not a very promising
instrument with which to achieve the liberation of the Peninsula, or to
resist the greatest general in Europe. Considered as a government of
national defence, it had far too little military knowledge: a haphazard
assembly of priests, politicians, and grandees is not adapted for the
conduct of a war of independence. Hence came the incredible blindness
which led it to refuse to appoint a single commander-in-chief, and the
obstinacy with which it buried itself in constitutional debates of the
most futile sort when Napoleon was thundering at the gates of Spain.
[361] For a complete list of the names and professions of the
members of the Junta, see the Appendix.
The meeting of the Supreme Junta was fixed for September 25, but long
ere that date came round the military situation was assuming new
developments. The first modification in the state of affairs was caused
by the abortive attempt of the Basque provinces to free themselves. The
news of Baylen had caused as great a stir in the northern mountains as
in the south or the east of Spain. But Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and Alava
had considerable French garrisons, and the retreat of Joseph Bonaparte
to the Ebro only increased the number of enemies in their immediate
neighbourhood. It would have been no less patriotic than prudent for
these provinces to delay their insurrection till it had some chance of
proving useful to the general scheme of operations for the expulsion
of the French from Spain. If they could have waited till Blake and
Castaños had reached the Ebro, and then have taken arms, they might
have raised a most dangerous distraction in the rear of the French, and
have prevented them from turning all their forces against the regular
armies. But it was mad to rise when Blake was still at Astorga, and
Castaños had not yet reached Madrid. It could not have been expected
that the local patriots should understand this: but grave blame falls
on those who ought to have known better. The Duke of Infantado, who
was acting under Blake, and Colonel Doyle, the English representative
at that general’s head quarters, did their best to precipitate the
outbreak in Biscay. They promised the Biscayan leaders that a division
from Asturias should come to their aid, and that English arms and
ammunition should be poured into their harbours[362]. At the first
word of encouragement all Biscay took arms [August 6]: a great mass of
insurgents collected at Bilbao, and smaller bands appeared along the
line of the mountains, even as far as Valcarlos on the very frontier
of France. But no external aid came to them: the Asturians--averse to
every proposal that came from Galicia--did not move outside their own
provincial boundary, and no other Spanish army was within striking
distance. Bessières was able, at his leisure, to detach General Merlin
with 3,000 men to fall on Bilbao. This brigade proved enough to deal
with the main body of the Biscayan insurgents, who after a creditable
fight were dispersed with heavy loss--1,200 killed, according to the
French commander’s dispatch [August 16]. Bilbao was taken and sacked,
and English vessels bringing--now that it was too late--5,000 stand
of arms for the insurgents, narrowly escaped capture in its harbour.
All along the line of the Basque hills there was hanging and shooting
of the leaders of the abortive rising[363]. The only result of this
ill-advised move was that Bessières was warned of the danger in his
rear, and kept a vigilant eye for the future on the coastland. The
Biscayans, as was natural, were much discouraged at the way in which
they had been left in the lurch by their fellow countrymen, and at
the inefficacy of their own unaided efforts. They were loth to rise a
second time.
[362] See the letters of Doyle quoted in Napier, i. 287.
[363] Joseph Bonaparte to Napoleon, Sept. 5, 1808.
It was not till twenty days had passed since the fall of Bilbao
that the first attempts at combined action were made by the Spanish
generals. On September 5 there met at Madrid a council of war,
composed of Castaños, Cuesta, the Valencian General Llamas, and the
representatives of Blake and Palafox--the Duke of Infantado and Calvo
de Rozas, intendant-general of the army of Aragon. These officers met
with much suppressed jealousy and suspicion of each other. The Duke
had his eye on Cuesta, in accordance with the instructions of Blake.
Castaños and Cuesta were at daggers drawn, for the old Captain-General
had just proposed a _coup d’état_ against the Junta to the Andalusian,
and had been repulsed with scorn[364]. The representative of the army
of Aragon had been charged to see that no one was put above the head
of Palafox. When the meeting opened, Cuesta proposed that it should
appoint a single general to direct all the forces of Spain. The
others demurred: Cuesta was much their senior in the army-list, and
they imagined--probably with truth--that he would claim the post of
commander-in-chief for himself, in spite of the memories of Cabezon
and Rio Seco. They refused to listen to his arguments, though it was
certain that unity of command was in every way desirable. Nor was any
disposition shown to raise Castaños to supreme authority, though this
was the obvious step to take, as he was the only general of Spain who
had won a great battle in the open field. But personal and provincial
jealousy stood in the way, and Castaños himself, though not without
ambition, was destitute of the arts of cajolery, and made no attempt to
push his own candidature for the post of commander-in-chief. Perhaps
he hoped that the Supreme Junta would do him justice ere long, and
refrained for that reason from self-assertion before his colleagues.
Nothing, therefore, was settled on September 5, save a plan for common
operations against the French on the Ebro. Like all schemes that are
formed from a compromise between the views of several men, this was
not a very brilliant strategical effort: instead of providing for a
bold stroke with the whole Spanish army, at some point on the long line
between Burgos and Milagro, it merely brought the insurgent forces
in half-a-dozen separate columns face to face with the enemy. Blake,
with his own army and the Asturians, was to be asked to concentrate
near Reynosa, at the sources of the Ebro, and to endeavour to turn
Bessières’ flank and penetrate into Biscay[365]. He would have 30,000
men, or more, but not a single complete regiment of cavalry. Next to
him Cuesta was to operate against the front of Bessières’ corps, with
his ‘Army of Castile,’ eight or nine thousand raw levies backed by
about 1,000 horse. He undertook to make Burgo de Osma his point of
starting. More to the east, Castaños was to gather at Soria the four
divisions of the army of Andalusia, but at present he had only that of
La Peña in hand: the Junta of Seville was detaining the rest. Still
more to the right, Llamas with his 8,000 Valencians and Murcians was
to march on Tudela. Lastly Palafox, with the army of Aragon and the
Valencian division of Saint March, was to keep north of the Ebro, and
turn the left flank of Moncey’s corps by way of Sanguesa: he could
bring about 25,000 men into line, but there were not more than five or
six regular battalions among them; the rest were recent levies. When
the army of Estremadura should come up (it was still about Elvas and
Badajoz), it was to join Castaños; and it was hoped that the English
forces from Portugal might also be directed on the same point.
[364] I find the story of Cuesta’s projected _coup d’état_ (in
Toreño, i. 267), which was supposed to rest on the authority
of Castaños alone, completely corroborated in Sir Charles
Vaughan’s private diary. On Sept. 15 Vaughan, while passing
through Segovia, met Cuesta, who told him ‘that two measures
were absolutely necessary: (1) the abolition of the provincial
Juntas, and the restoration of the ancient authority of the
Captains-General and _Real Audiencia_; (2) _The exercise of
military force_ over the Junta at Ocaña (i.e. the supreme
‘Central Junta’) sufficient to compel them to elect an executive
council of three or five persons to be placed at the head of
different departments, and to be responsible to the nation at
large.’ This is precisely what Cuesta proposed to Castaños.
[365] So Toreño. Arteche says that he was to concentrate at
Aranda.
But meanwhile only 75,000 men were available in the first line; and
this force, spread along the whole front from Reynosa to Sanguesa, and
acting on wide external lines, was not likely to make much impression
on the French. The numbers of the invaders were considerably greater
than those of the patriot-armies. Jourdan had 70,000 men by September
1, and was being reinforced every day by fresh battalions, though the
three corps from Germany were still far off. Before the Spaniards
could move he appreciably outnumbered them, and he had the inestimable
advantage of holding a comparatively short front, and of being able to
concentrate on any point with far greater rapidity than was possible to
his adversaries. Even had they thrown all their forces on one single
point, the French, always using the ‘interior lines,’ could have got
together in a very short time. The only weak point, indeed, in the
French position was that Bessières’ vanguard at Burgos was too far
forward, and in some peril of being enveloped between Blake and Cuesta.
But this detachment, as we shall see, was ere long drawn back to the
Ebro.
Before the campaign began the Spaniards obtained one notable
advantage--the removal of Cuesta from command, owing to his own
incredible arrogance and folly. It will be remembered that he regarded
the Juntas of Leon and Castile as recalcitrant subordinates of his own,
and had declared all their acts null and void. When they proceeded,
like the other Juntas, to elect representatives for the meeting at
Aranjuez, he waited till the deputies of Leon were passing near his
camp, and then suddenly descended upon them. Don Antonio Valdez, the
Bailiff of the Maltese Knights, and the Vizconde de Quintanilla, were
arrested by his troopers and shut up in the castle of Segovia. He
announced that they should be tried by court-martial, for failing in
obedience to their Captain-General. This astonishing act of presumption
drew down on him the wrath of the Supreme Junta, which was naturally
eager to protect its members from the interference of the military
arm. Almost its first act on assembling was to order him to appear
at Aranjuez and to suspend him from command. Cuesta would have liked
to resist, but knowing that his own army was weak and that Blake and
Castaños were his bitter enemies, he had to yield. He came to Aranjuez,
and was superseded by General Eguia. Valdez and Quintanilla were
immediately released, and took their seats in the Supreme Junta.
The sessions of that body had begun on September 25. Twenty-four
members out of the designated thirty-five had assembled on that day,
and after a solemn religious ceremony had re-proclaimed Ferdinand VII,
and elected Florida Blanca as their President. They then proceeded to
nominate a Cabinet, chosen entirely from outside their own body. Don
Pedro Cevallos was to be Minister of Foreign Affairs: he had served
Ferdinand VII in that capacity, but had smirched his reputation by his
submission to Bonaparte after the treachery at Bayonne. However, his
ingenious justification[366] of his conduct, and his early desertion
of King Joseph, were allowed to serve as an adequate defence. Don
Antonio Escaño was Minister of Marine, Don Benito Hermida Minister
of Justice, Don Francisco de Saavedra Minister of the Interior. The
most important place of all, that of Minister of War, was given to
an utterly unknown person, General Antonio Cornel, instead of to
any of the officers who had distinguished themselves during the
recent campaigns. He was to be aided by a supreme council of war,
consisting of six members of the Junta, three of whom were civilians
without any military knowledge whatever. No intention of appointing
a commander-in-chief was shown, and the Minister of War corresponded
directly with all the generals in charge of the provincial armies.
Nothing could have been more ill judged; from the want of a single
hand at the helm all the oncoming operations were doomed to inevitable
failure. The supreme direction was nominally entrusted to the obscure
war-minister and his councillors, really it lay with the generals in
the field, who obeyed orders from head quarters only just as much as
they chose. Each played his own game, and the result was disaster.
[366] His very elaborate vindication of himself can be read
in his pamphlet of September, 1808, which was translated into
English in the same winter, and reprinted in London. It contains
a good account of the Bayonne business, and many valuable state
papers.
A glance at the subjects which were discussed by the members of
the Junta, during its first weeks of session, suffices to show the
short-sightedness of their policy, and their utter inability to grasp
the situation. They should have remembered that they were a government
of national defence, whose main duty was the expulsion of the French
from the soil of Spain. But military subjects furnished the smallest
portion of their subjects of debate. They published indeed a manifesto
to the effect that they intended to levy an army of 500,000 foot, and
50,000 horse--a much greater force than Spain in her most flourishing
days could have raised or maintained. But this paper army was never
seen in the field: less than a third of the number were under arms
at the moment in December when the Junta had to fly from Aranjuez,
before the advancing legions of Napoleon. Nor was it likely that a
great army could be raised, equipped, and disciplined, while the
central government was devoting the greater part of its attention to
futilities. The most cruel comment on its work lies in the fact that
its troops were ill furnished, badly armed, and half starved, at the
moment when the provinces were doing their best to provide equipment,
and every port in Spain was gorged with cannon, muskets, munitions, and
stores sent from England--a great part of them destined to fall into
the hands of the French. Partly from want of experience, but still more
from want of energy, the Junta failed to use the national enthusiasm
and the considerable resources placed at its disposal.
When we look at the main topics of its debates we begin to understand
its failures. A good deal of time was spent in voting honorary
distinctions to its own members. The President was to be addressed
as ‘his highness,’ the Junta as a corporation was ‘its majesty,’ if
we may use the ludicrous phrase. Each member became ‘his excellency’
and received the liberal salary of 120,000 reals (£1,200), besides
the right of wearing on his breast a gold plaque with an embossed
representation of the eastern and western hemispheres. There was a
good deal of dispensing of places and patronage in the army and the
civil service among relatives and dependencies of ‘their excellencies,’
but not more perhaps than happens in other countries in war-time when
a new government comes in. At least the changes led to the getting
rid of a good many of Godoy’s old bureaucrats. The real fault of the
Junta lay in its readiness to fall into factions, and fight over
constitutional questions that should have been relegated to times of
peace. Among the thirty-five members of the Junta a clear majority
were, like their president, Florida Blanca, Spaniards of the old
school, whose ideas of government were those of the autocratic sort
that had prevailed under Alberoni and Charles III. They looked upon
all innovations as tinged with the poison of the French Revolution and
savouring of Jacobinism and infidelity. On the other hand there was a
powerful minority, headed by Jovellanos and including Martin de Garay,
the secretary of the Junta, the Marquis of Campo Sagrado, Valdes,
Calvo de Rozas, and others, who held more modern views and hoped that
the main result of the war would be to make Spain a constitutional
monarchy of the English type. How far this dream was from realization
was shown by the fact that among the first measures passed through
the Supreme Junta were ordinances allowing the Jesuits (expelled long
since by Charles III) to return to Spain, recreating the office of
Inquisitor-General, and suspending the liberty of the press. Such
measures filled the liberal section in the Junta with despair, by
showing the narrow and reactionary views of the majority. But the
greater part of the time spent in session by ‘its majesty’ was wasted
on purely constitutional questions. Firstly there was a long polemic
with the Council of Castile, whose hatred for the Junta took the form
of starting doubts as to the legality of its constitution[367]. It
suggested that all constitutional precedents were against a body so
numerous as thirty-five persons taking charge of the governance of
the realm. Former councils of regency had been composed of three or
five members only, and there was no legal authority for breaking the
rule. The Council suggested that the only way out of the difficulty
would be to call the Cortes, and that assembly would at once supersede
the authority of the Supreme Junta. Instead of arguing with the
Council of Castile, the new government would have done well to arrest
or disperse that effete and disloyal body; but it chose instead to
indulge in a war of manifestos and proclamations which led to nothing.
To find the supreme government consenting to argue about its own
legality was not reassuring to the nation. Moreover, Jovellanos and
his followers spent much time in impressing on their colleagues that
it was their duty to appoint a regency, and to cut down their own
unwieldy numbers, as well as to provide machinery for the summoning
of the Cortes at some not too distant date. To be reminded that they
were no permanent corporation, but a temporary committee dressed in
a little brief authority, was most unpleasant to the majority. They
discussed from every point of view the question of the regency and
the Cortes, but would not yield up their own supremacy. Indeed they
proposed to begin legislation on a very wide basis for the reform of
the constitution--business which should rather have been left to the
Cortes, and which was particularly inappropriate to the moment when
Napoleon was crossing the Pyrenees. The great manifesto of the Junta
[October 26] sets forth its intentions very clearly. ‘The knowledge and
illustration of our ancient and constitutional laws; the changes which
altered circumstances render necessary in their re-establishment; the
reforms necessary in civil, criminal, and commercial codes; projects
for improving public education; a system of regulated economy for the
collection and distribution of the public revenue ... are the subjects
for the investigation of wise and thoughtful men. The Junta will form
different committees, each entrusted with a particular department, to
whom all writings on matters of government and administration may be
addressed. The exertions of each contributing to give a just direction
to the public mind, the government will be enabled to establish the
internal happiness of Spain[368].’ From another official document we
learn that ‘among the most grave and urgent objects of the attention of
the Central Junta will be the encouragement of agriculture, the arts,
commerce, and navigation[369].’
[367] For these documents see the _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 4.
[368] Manifesto of the Junta to the Spanish people, Oct. 26.
[369] _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 18, p. 1,301.
Clearly nothing could be more inappropriate and absurd than that this
government of national defence should turn its attention to subjects
such as the reform of national education, or the encouragement of the
arts. It is equally certain that if it should propose to ‘consider
the changes necessary in our ancient laws,’ it would be going beyond
its competence; for such business belonged only to a permanent and
properly constituted national assembly, such as the Cortes. This was
not the time for constitutional debates, nor was the Central Junta the
body that should have started them. All their energies should have
been devoted to the war. But misled as to the situation by the long
quiescence of the French army on the Ebro, they turned their minds to
every topic that should have been avoided, and neglected the single one
that should always have been before their eyes. It was in vain that
Calvo de Rozas, the Aragonese deputy, and a few more, tried to keep
their colleagues to the point. The majority fell to debating on the
subjects on which the despotic and the liberal theories of government
clash, and spent themselves on discussions that were as heated as they
were futile. Meanwhile the time that should have been turned to account
was slipping away, and the army was not being reinforced. A glance
at the field-states of the Spanish troops, comparing those of August
1 with those of November 1, sufficiently proves this. The provinces
which had been recovered by the retreat of the French to the Ebro were
not doing their duty. The wide and populous regions of Old Castile
and Leon had sent 4,600 men to Rio Seco in July: in October they had
less than 12,000 under arms[370]. From New Castile there seem to have
been raised nothing more than four battalions of Madrid Volunteers,
a weak cavalry regiment, and two battalions of _Cazadores de Cuenca_
and _Tiradores de Castilla_: at any rate no troops but these are to
be found recorded in the lists of the armies that fought in October,
November, and December, 1808. Even allowing that New Castile may have
supplied recruits to its own corps of embodied militia serving with the
Andalusian army[371], it is clear that, with a population of 1,200,000
souls, it ought to have done much more in raising new regiments. And
this was the district in whose very midst the Junta was sitting! What
little was done in Madrid seems to have been mainly the result of
private enterprise: the _Gazette_ for October is full of voluntary
donations of horses, saddlery, and money, for the equipment of a corps
of dragoons for the army of Old Castile, and of similar gifts received
by Calvo de Rozas for the army of Aragon. But there are no signs of
requisitions by the government for the purpose of raising an army of
New Castile, which could certainly have been done. The kingdom with
its five provinces ought to have given 40,000 men instead of 4,000:
for Asturias, with only 370,000 souls, had raised 13,000: Aragon
with 650,000 had placed no less than 32,000 levies in the field: and
Estremadura with 420,000 had sent to the front 12,000 men by October,
while keeping 10,000 more of undrilled recruits in its dépôts[372].
New Castile, as we have already had occasion to remark, had 1,200,000
inhabitants, and yet had only added to its original five battalions
of militia six more of volunteers, and a single regiment of horse, at
the moment when Napoleon’s armies came flooding across the Ebro. The
Central Junta’s authority in Andalusia or Galicia was much limited
by the survival of the ambitious local Juntas. But in Leon and the
two Castiles there was, when once Cuesta had been got out of the way,
no rival power in the field. No one was to blame but the central
government, if the full resources of those regions were not utilized
in September, October, and November. The English representatives at
Madrid saw all this, and did their best to stir up the Junta. But it
was not likely that mere foreigners would succeed, where Castaños
and the other more energetic Spanish officers had failed. Already in
October the situation appeared most unpromising: ‘We have made repeated
representations,’ wrote Mr. Stuart, the British minister, ‘and I have
given in paper after paper, to obtain something like promptitude and
vigour: but though loaded with fair promises in the commencement,
we scarcely quit the members of the Junta before their attention is
absorbed in petty pursuits and in wrangling, which impedes even the
simplest arrangements necessary for the interior government of the
country.... In short, we are doing what we can, not what we wish: and I
assure you we have infamous tools to work with[373].’ Exactly the same
impression is produced by a study of the dispatches of Lord William
Bentinck, our military representative at Madrid, and of the diary of
Sir Charles Vaughan, who carefully attended and followed the debates
of the Central Junta at Aranjuez. It was clear to any dispassionate
observer that time was being wasted, and that the best was not being
done with the available material.
[370] Napier is not quite correct in saying (i. 293) that ‘Leon
never raised a single soldier for the cause.’ It had three
battalions of volunteers (2,400 men) at Rio Seco, and raised
four more at Leon, Zamora, Ledesma, and Benavente in September
(_Madrid Gazette_, Sept. 28). But this was a poor contribution
for a kingdom of four provinces and 620,000 souls.
[371] I see no proof that even this was done. There were only
five of them, the _Provinciales_ of Cuenca, Toledo, Ciudad Real,
Alcazar de Don Juan, and Siguenza. Toledo and Alcazar had 579
and 595 under arms at the time of Baylen, and only 500 each,
apparently, in Nov. 1808. See Arteche, iii. 496.
[372] For the Asturians see the table in Arteche (ii. 651):
they were still 10,000 strong after having shared in Blake’s
disastrous campaign. For the Estremadurans compare the list of
regiments raised in the _Madrid Gazette_ of Oct. 21, giving
a total of 23,600 men, with the actual morning state of the
Estremaduran troops at Madrid on their way to Burgos, 12,846 in
all, given in Arteche (iii. 477).
[373] Stuart to Moore, from Madrid, Oct. 18, 1808.
This was all the more inexcusable because the nation was thoroughly
in earnest, and prepared to make any sacrifices. The voluntary
contributions made both by provinces and by individuals were astounding
when the poverty of Spain is taken into consideration[374]. It was
the energy and will to use them on the part of the leaders that was
wanting. Moreover, England was pouring in supplies of all sorts: before
November 16 she had sent at least 122,000 muskets and other military
equipment of all kinds to the value of several hundred thousand pounds.
Before the same date she had forwarded 4,725,000 dollars in hard
cash[375], and Mr. Frere, the newly appointed minister, brought another
million to Corunna.
[374] For details see the tables in Arguelles, and the grants
recorded in the _Madrid Gazette_ for September, October, and
November.
[375] I take these figures as to what had been actually received
from Vaughan, who was at Madrid, in constant communication with
Stuart and Bentinck. They represent what had been paid over and
acknowledged, not what had been promised or provided, and may be
taken as accurate.
Instead of utilizing every possible resource the government went on
debating about things unessential, as if the war had been ended at
Baylen. It would neither conduct the new campaign itself, nor appoint
a single commander-in-chief to conduct it in its behalf. With absolute
truth Colonel Graham wrote from the head quarters of the Army of the
Centre that ‘the miserable system established by the Junta was at the
bottom of all misfortunes. I pitied poor Castaños and poor Spain, and
came away disgusted to the greatest degree[376].’
[376] Graham to Moore, from Tudela, Nov. 9, 1808.
SECTION VI: CHAPTER IV
AN EPISODE IN THE BALTIC
It will be remembered that one of Napoleon’s preliminary measures, in
his long campaign against the freedom of Spain, had been the removal of
the flower of her army to the shores of the Baltic. In the spring of
1807 the Marquis of La Romana, with fourteen battalions of infantry and
five regiments of cavalry, all completed to war strength, had marched
for Hamburg. After wintering in the Hanseatic towns, Mecklenburg, and
Swedish Pomerania, this corps had been moved up early in 1808 into
Denmark[377]. It is clear that there was no military object in placing
it there. The Danish fleet was gone, carried off by Lord Cathcart’s
expedition in the previous September, and there was no probability
that the English would return for a second visit, when they had
completely executed their plan for destroying the naval resources of
Denmark. France and Sweden, it is true, were still at war, but King
Gustavus was so much occupied by the defensive struggle against the
Russians in Finland, that it was unlikely that he would detach troops
for an objectless expedition against the Danes. On the other hand the
Anglo-Swedish fleet was so completely dominant in the Baltic and the
Sound, that there was no possibility of launching an expedition from
Denmark against Southern Sweden. Even between the various islands at
the mouth of the Baltic, where the water-distances are very short,
troops could only be moved at night, and with infinite precautions
against being surprised on the passage by English frigates. Gothenburg
and the other harbours of South-western Sweden served as convenient
ports of call to the British squadron told off for the observation
of the Cattegat, the two Belts, and the Sound. Nothing could be done
against Sweden, unless indeed a frost of exceptional severity might
close the waterway between Zealand and Scania. Even then an attempt to
make a dash at Helsingborg or Malmö would involve so many difficulties
and dangers that few generals would have cared to risk it.
[377] The Spanish troops, though the best of the whole army, do
not seem to have much impressed the German observer with their
discipline. See the Mecklenburger Von Suckow’s observations on
what he saw of them in his _From Jena to Moscow_, p. 92.
La Romana’s corps formed part of an army under Marshal Bernadotte,
whose sphere of command extended all over the south-western shores of
the Baltic, and whose head quarters were sometimes at Schleswig and
sometimes at Lübeck or Stralsund. He had considerable French and Dutch
contingents, but the bulk of his force consisted of 30,000 Danes. In
preparation for Napoleon’s scheme against the Spanish Bourbons, La
Romana’s forces had been carefully scattered between Jutland and the
Danish Isles, so that there was no large central body concentrated
under the Marquis’s own hand. The garrisons of the Spanish regiments
were interspersed between those of Danish troops, so that it would be
difficult to get them together. In March, 1808, when the Emperor had at
last shown his hand by the treacherous seizure of Pampeluna, Barcelona,
and Figueras, the troops of La Romana were cantoned as follows. Six
battalions were in the island of Zealand, mainly in and about the old
royal residence of Roeskilde[378]. Four battalions and two cavalry
regiments were in Fünen, the central island of the Danish group, and
with them La Romana himself, whose head quarters were at Nyborg[379].
One battalion lay in the island of Langeland, close to the south coast
of Fünen[380]. In the mainland of Jutland were three cavalry regiments
and three battalions of infantry[381], quartered in the little towns
at the southern end of the Cattegat--Fredericia, Aarhuus, and Randers.
In Zealand the 4,000 Spaniards were under the eyes of the main Danish
army of observation against Sweden. In Fünen La Romana’s 4,500 horse
and foot were cantoned in small detachments, while a solid body of
3,000 Danes garrisoned Odense in the centre of the island, separating
the Spanish regiments one from another. In Langeland, along with the
Catalonian light battalion, were a company of French grenadiers and
about 800 Danes. The troops in Jutland were mixed up with a brigade of
Dutch light cavalry and some Danish infantry. Napoleon’s own provident
eye had been roving round Denmark, and he had himself given the orders
for the dislocation of the Spanish corps in the fashion that seemed
best calculated to make any common action impossible. To keep them
in good temper he had recently raised the pay of the officers, and
announced his intention of decorating La Romana with the Grand Cross of
the Legion of Honour. Bernadotte, by his desire, displayed the greatest
confidence in his auxiliaries, and took a troop of the cavalry regiment
Del Rey as his personal escort while moving about in Denmark[382].
[378] Infantry regiments of Guadalajara and Asturias, of three
battalions each.
[379] Infantry regiment of Princesa (three battalions), light
battalion of Barcelona, and cavalry regiments of Almanza and
Villaviciosa.
[380] Light battalion of ‘Volunteers of Catalonia.’
[381] Infantry regiment of Zamora, cavalry regiments Del Rey,
Algarve, Infante.
[382] Arteche, iii. 151.
In spite of all this, the Marquis and his officers began to grow uneasy
in April, 1808, for the stream of dispatches and letters from Spain,
which had been reaching them very regularly during the winter, began
to dry up in the spring. When the first communication from the new
ministry of Ferdinand VII reached La Romana he found that it contained
a complaint that the home government had received no reports from the
expeditionary force since January, and that fifteen separate dispatches
sent to him from Madrid had failed to get any answer. The fact was
that Napoleon had been systematically intercepting every document
which the war minister at one end of the line, and the Marquis at the
other, had been committing to the French post[383]. The last dispatch
had only come to hand because such an important announcement as that
of the accession of King Ferdinand had been sent by the hands of a
Spanish officer, whom Bonaparte or Fouché had not thought proper to
arrest, though they had intercepted so much official correspondence.
The Emperor himself had sent orders to Bernadotte that the news of the
revolution at Aranjuez should be kept as long as possible from the
Marquis and his troops[384]: and so it came to pass that only a very
few days after the events of March 19 became known in Denmark, there
followed the deplorable intelligence of the treachery of Bayonne and
of the Madrid insurrection of May 2. These tidings produced the same
feelings in Nyborg and Fredericia that they had caused at Seville
or Corunna. But on the shores of the Baltic, further north than any
Spanish troops had ever been before, the expeditionary corps felt
itself helpless and surrounded by enemies. Yet as Joseph O’Donnell,
then one of La Romana’s staff, observed: ‘The more they tried to
persuade us that Spain was tranquil, and had settled down to enjoy
an age of felicity under Napoleon, the more clearly did we foresee
the scenes of blood, strife, and disaster which were to follow these
incredible events[385].’
[383] Bourrienne, _Mémoires_, viii. 20.
[384] Napoleon to Berthier, March 29, 1808 (_Nap. Corresp._,
13,699).
[385] See his words quoted in Arteche, iii. 154.
On June 24 there reached Nyborg the intelligence which showed the whole
of Napoleon’s schemes completed: it was announced to La Romana that
Joseph Bonaparte had been proclaimed King of Spain, and he was ordered
to transmit the news to his troops, and to inform them in General
Orders that they were now serving a new master. The only commentary on
this astonishing information which the Spanish officers could procure
consisted of the nauseous banalities of the _Moniteur_ concerning the
‘regeneration of Spain.’
A very few days later the first ray of hope shone upon the humbled
and disheartened general. One of the earliest ideas of the British
Government, on hearing of the Spanish insurrection, had been to open
communications with the troops in Denmark. Castaños, in his first
interview with the Governor of Gibraltar, had expressed his opinion
that they would strike a blow for liberty if only they were given the
chance. The fleet of Sir Richard Keates so completely commanded the
Baltic that it would be possible to rescue the Spanish expeditionary
force, if only it were willing and able to cut its way to the coast.
But it was necessary to find out whether the Marquis was ready to risk
his neck in such an enterprise, and whether he could depend on the
loyalty of his troops.
To settle this all-important question some agent must be found who
would undertake to penetrate to La Romana’s head quarters, a task
of the most uninviting kind, for it was quite uncertain whether the
Spaniard would eagerly join in the plan, or whether he would make up
his mind to espouse the cause of Napoleon, and hand over his visitor to
the French police. To find a man who knew the Continent well enough to
move about without detection, and who would take the risk of placing
himself at La Romana’s mercy, in case his offers were refused, did
not seem easy. But the right person was pitched upon by Sir Arthur
Wellesley just before he sailed for Portugal. He recommended to
Canning a Roman Catholic priest of the name of James Robertson. This
enterprising ecclesiastic was a Scot who had spent most of his life
in a monastery at Ratisbon, but had lately come to England and was
acting as tutor in the house of an English Catholic peer. He had some
time before offered himself to Wellesley as a man who knew Germany
well, and was prepared to run risks in making himself useful to the
Government[386].
[386] See his interesting little book, _A Secret Mission to the
Danish Isles in 1808_, published at Edinburgh in 1863 by his
relative Alexander Fraser.
Under the belief that the Spaniards were still quartered in the Hanse
towns and Holstein, Canning sent for Robertson and asked him whether
he would undertake this dangerous mission to Northern Germany. The
priest accepted the offer, and was dispatched to Heligoland, where
Mr. Mackenzie, the British agent in this lately seized island, found
him a place on board a smuggling vessel bound for the mouth of the
Weser. He was safely landed near Bremerhafen and made his way to
Hamburg, only to find that the Spaniards had been moved northward into
the Danish isles. This made the mission more dangerous, as Robertson
knew neither the country nor the language. But he disguised himself
as a German commercial traveller, and laid in a stock of chocolate
and cigars--things which were very rare in the North, as along with
other colonial produce they were proscribed by the Continental System,
and could only be got from smugglers. It was known that the Spanish
officers felt deeply their privation of the two luxuries most dear to
their frugal race, so that it seemed very natural that a dealer in such
goods should attempt to find a market among them.
Getting to Nyborg without much difficulty, the priest took his fate in
his hands, and introduced himself to La Romana with a box of cigars
under one arm and a dozen packets of chocolate under the other.
When they were alone, he threw himself on the Marquis’s confidence,
owning that he was a priest and a British subject, not a German or a
commercial traveller. The Spaniard was at first suspicious and silent,
thinking that he had to deal with an _agent provocateur_ of the French
Government, who was trying to make him show his hand. Robertson
had no written vouchers for his mission--they would have been too
dangerous--but had been given some verbal credentials by Canning, which
soon convinced La Romana of his good faith. The Marquis then owned that
he was disgusted with his position, and felt sure that Napoleon had
plotted the ruin of Spain, though what exactly had happened at Bayonne
he had not yet been able to ascertain. Robertson next laid before him
Canning’s offer--that if the expeditionary force could be concentrated
and got to the coast, the Baltic fleet should pick it up, and see that
it was landed at Minorca, Gibraltar, the Canaries, in South America, or
at any point in Spain that the Marquis might select.
La Romana asked for a night to talk the matter over with his staff,
and next day gave his full consent to the plan, bidding the priest
pass the word on to Sir Richard Keates, and discover the earliest day
on which transports could be got ready to carry off his men. Robertson
tried to communicate with a British frigate which was hovering off the
coast of Fünen, but was arrested by Danish militiamen while signalling
to the ship from a lonely point on the beach. His purpose was almost
discovered, and he only escaped by a series of ingenious lies to the
militia colonel before whom he was taken by his captors. Moving further
south, he again tried to get in touch with Sir Richard Keates, and
this time succeeded. The news was passed to London, and transports
were prepared for the deliverance of the Spaniards. Canning also sent
to Fünen an agent of the Asturian Junta, who would be able to give his
countrymen full news of the insurrection that had taken place in June.
Meanwhile La Romana had sounded his subordinates, and found them
all eager to join in the plan of evasion, save Kindelan, the
brigadier-general commanding the troops in Jutland, who showed such
unpatriotic views that the officer sent to confer with him dropped the
topic without revealing his commission. The plan which the Marquis
had formed was rather ingenious: Bernadotte was about to go round the
garrisons in his command on a tour of inspection. It was agreed that
under the pretext of holding a grand field-day for his benefit, all the
scattered Spanish troops in Fünen should be concentrated at Nyborg. The
regiments in Zealand and Jutland were to join them, when the arrival of
the British fleet should be reported, by seizing the Danish small craft
in the harbours nearest to them, and crossing over the two Belts to
join their commander.
An unfortunate _contretemps_, however, interfered to prevent the full
execution of the scheme. Orders came from Paris that all the Spanish
troops were to swear allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte, each corps
parading at its head quarters for the purpose on July 30 or 31. This
news caused grave disorders among the subordinate officers and the men,
who were of course in complete ignorance of the plan for evasion. La
Romana and his councillors held that the ceremony had better be gone
through--to swear under compulsion was not perjury, and to refuse
would draw down on the Spanish corps overwhelming numbers of Danes and
French, so that the whole scheme for escape would miscarry. Accordingly
the troops in Jutland and Fünen went through the ceremony in a more or
less farcical way--in some cases the men are said to have substituted
the name Ferdinand for the name Joseph in their oath, while the
officers took no notice of this rather startling variation.
But in Zealand things went otherwise: the two infantry regiments of
Guadalajara and Asturias, when paraded and told to take the oath,
burst out into mutiny, drove off those of their own officers who
tried to restrain them, killed the aide-de-camp of the French General
Fririon, who was presiding at the ceremony, and threatened to march on
Copenhagen. Next day they were surrounded by masses of Danish troops,
forced to surrender, disarmed, and put in confinement in small bodies
at various points in the island [August 1].
This startling news revealed to Bernadotte the true state of feeling
in the Spanish army, and he wrote to La Romana to announce that he was
about to visit the Danish Isles in order to inquire into the matter.
Fortunately there came at the same moment news from England that the
time for escape was at hand. On August 4, only three days after the
mutiny at Roeskilde, the brigantine _Mosquito_, having on board Rafael
Lobo (the emissary of the Asturian deputies), reached the Baltic, and
communicated by night with some of the Spanish officers on the island
of Langeland. The British fleet had sailed, and the time for action had
arrived.
Accordingly La Romana gave the word to the officers in each garrison to
whom the secret had been entrusted. On August 7, the troops in Fünen
concentrated, and seized the port of Nyborg: the Danes were completely
taken by surprise, and no resistance was made save by a gallant and
obstinate naval officer commanding a brig in the harbour. He fired on
the Spaniards, and would not yield till an English frigate and five
gunboats ran into the port and battered his vessel to pieces.
On August 8 the troops in Jutland struck their blow: the infantry
regiment of Zamora at Fredericia seized a number of fishing-vessels,
and ferried itself over into Fünen with no difficulty. General
Kindelan, the only traitor in the camp, had been kept from all
knowledge of what was to happen: when he saw his troops on the
move, and received an explanatory note from La Romana putting him
in possession of the state of affairs, he feigned compliance in the
plan, but disguised himself and fled to the nearest French cantonment,
where he gave enemy a full account of the startling news. The cavalry
regiments Infante and Del Rey had the same luck as their comrades of
Zamora: they seized boats at Aarhuus, and, abandoning their horses, got
across unopposed to Fünen. Their comrades of the regiment of Algarve
were less lucky: they were delayed for some time by the indecision of
their aged and imbecile colonel: when Costa, their senior captain, took
command and marched them from Horsens towards the port of Fredericia,
it was now too late. A brigade of Dutch Hussars, warned by Kindelan,
beset them on the way and took them all prisoners. Costa, seeing that
the responsibility would fall on his head, blew out his brains at the
moment of surrender.
Romana had concentrated in Fünen nearly 8,000 men, and was so strong
that the Danish general at Odense, in the centre of the island, dared
not meddle with him. On August 9, 10, and 11 he passed his troops over
to the smaller island of Langeland, where the regiment of Catalonia had
already disarmed the Danish garrison and seized the batteries. Here he
was safe, for Langeland was far out to sea, and he was now protected
from the Danes by the English warships which were beginning to gather
on the spot. A few isolated men from Zealand, about 150 in all,
succeeded in joining the main body, having escaped from their guards
and seized fishing-boats: but these were all that got away from the
regiments of Asturias and Guadalajara, the mutineers of July 31.
For ten days Langeland was crammed with 9,000 Spanish troops, waiting
anxiously for the expected British squadron. On the twenty-first,
however, Admiral Keates appeared, with three sail of the line and
several smaller craft. On these and on small Danish vessels the whole
army was hastily embarked: they reached Gothenburg in Sweden on August
27, and found there thirty-seven large transports sent from England
for their accommodation. After a long voyage they reached the Spanish
coast in safety, and the whole expeditionary corps of the North, now
9,000 strong, was concentrated at Santander by October 11. The infantry
was sent to take part in the second campaign of General Blake. The
dismounted cavalry were ordered to move to Estremadura, and there to
provide themselves with horses. La Romana himself was called to Madrid
to interview the Junta, so that his troops went to the front under the
charge of his second in command, the Count of San Roman, to take part
in the bloody fight of Espinosa.
SECTION VII
NAPOLEON’S INVASION OF SPAIN
CHAPTER I
FRENCH AND SPANISH PREPARATIONS
While the Supreme Junta was expending its energy on discussing
the relative merits of benevolent despotism and representative
government, and while Castaños fretted and fumed for the moving up
of reinforcements that never arrived, the French Emperor was getting
ready to strike. It took many weeks for the veteran divisions from
Glogau and Erfurt, from Bayreuth and Berlin, to traverse the whole
breadth of the French Empire and reach the Pyrenees. While they were
trailing across the Rhineland and the plains of France, well fêted and
fed at every important town[387], their master employed the time of
waiting in strengthening his political hold on Central Europe. We have
seen that he was seriously alarmed at the possibility of an Austrian
war, and alluded to it in his confidential letters to his kinsfolk.
But the court of Vienna was slow to stir, and as August and September
slipped by without any definite move on the Danube, Bonaparte began
to hope that he was to be spared the dangerous problem of waging two
European wars at the same time. Meanwhile he assumed an arrogant and
blustering tone with the Austrian Government, warning them that though
he was withdrawing 100,000 men from Germany, he should replace them
with new levies, and was still strong enough to hold his own[388].
Metternich gave prudent and evasive answers, and no immediate signs
of a rupture could be discerned. But to make matters sure, the Emperor
hastened to invite his ally the Emperor Alexander of Russia to meet
him at Erfurt. The ostensible object of the conference was to make
a final effort to induce the British Government to accept terms of
peace. Its real meaning was that Bonaparte wished to reassure himself
concerning the Czar’s intentions, and to see whether he could rely
upon the support of Russia in the event of a new Austrian war. There
is no need to go into the details of the meeting (September 27 to
October 14), of the gathering of four vassal kings and a score of
minor princes of the Confederation of the Rhine to do homage to their
master, of the feasts and plays and reviews. Suffice it to say that
Napoleon got what he wanted, a definite promise from the Czar of an
offensive and defensive alliance against all enemies whatsoever: a
special mention of Austria was made in the tenth clause of the new
treaty[389]. In return Alexander obtained leave to carry out his
designs against Finland and the Danubian principalities: his ally was
only too glad to see him involved in any enterprise that would distract
his attention from Central Europe. The Emperor Francis II hastened to
disarm the suspicions of Napoleon by sending to Erfurt an envoy[390]
charged with all manner of pacific declarations: they were accepted,
but the acceptance was accompanied by a message of scarcely concealed
threats[391], which must have touched the court of Vienna to the quick.
Strong in his Russian alliance, Bonaparte chose rather to bully than to
cajole the prince who, by the strangest of chances, was destined within
eighteen months to become his father-in-law. The quiet reception given
to his hectoring dispatches showed that, for the present at least,
nothing need be feared from the side of Austria. The Emperor’s whole
attention could be turned towards Spain. After telling off a few more
regiments for service beyond the Pyrenees, and giving leave to the
princes of the Confederation of the Rhine to demobilize their armies,
he left Erfurt [October 14] and came rushing back across Germany and
France to Paris; he stayed there ten days and then started for Bayonne,
where he arrived on the twentieth day after the termination of the
conference [November 3].
[387] For the banquets given (under imperial orders) by the
cities, see _Nap. Corresp._, 14,291, 14,331. Clearly Napoleon I
understood the ‘policy of champagne and sausages’ as well as his
nephew.
[388] Considering the delicate nature of the political situation,
Napoleon’s language to the Austrians was most rude and
provocative. See the long interview with Metternich [Aug. 15]
reported by Champagny in his dispatch (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,254):
‘Vous avez levé 400,000 hommes: je vais en lever 200,000. La
Confédération du Rhin, qui avait renvoyé ses troupes, va les
réunir et faire des levées. Je rétablirai les places de Silésie,
au lieu d’évacuer cette province et les états Prussiens, comme
je me le proposais. L’Europe sera sur pied, et le plus léger
incident amènera le commencement des hostilités,’ &c.
[389] ‘Dans le cas où l’Autriche se mettrait en guerre contre
la France, l’Empereur de Russie s’engage à se déclarer contre
l’Autriche, et à faire cause commune avec la France’ (Article X,
clause 2, of the Secret Treaty).
[390] Baron Vincent.
[391] See the dispatch (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,380).
Meanwhile the ostensible purpose of that meeting had been carried out,
by the forwarding to the King of England of a joint note in which
France and Russia offered him peace on the basis of _Uti Possidetis_.
It was a vague and grandiloquent document, obviously intended for
the eye of the public rather than for that of the old King. The two
Emperors expatiated on the horrors of war and on the vast changes
made of late in the map of Europe. Unless peace were made ‘there
might be greater changes still, and all to the disadvantage of the
English nation.’ The Continental System was working untold misery, and
the cessation of hostilities would be equally advantageous to Great
Britain and to her enemies. King George should ‘listen to the voice
of humanity,’ and assure the happiness of Europe by consenting to a
general pacification.
Though well aware of the hollowness of these protestations, which were
only intended to throw on England the odium of continuing the war,
the British Cabinet took them into serious consideration. The replies
to the two powers were carefully kept separate, and were written, not
in the name of the King (for the personal appeal to him was merely
a theatrical device), but in that of the ministry. To Russia a very
polite answer was returned, but the question on which the possibility
of peace rested was brought straight to the front. Would France
acknowledge the existing government of Spain as a power with which she
was prepared to treat? Canning, who drafted the dispatch, was perfectly
well aware that nothing was further from the Emperor’s thoughts, and
could not keep himself from adding an ironical clause, to the effect
that Napoleon had so often spoken of late of his regard for the dignity
and welfare of the Spanish people, that it could not be doubted that he
would consent. The late transactions at Bayonne, ‘whose principles were
as unjust as their example was dangerous to all legitimate sovereigns,’
must clearly have been carried through without his concurrence or
approbation.
The reply to France was still more uncompromising. ‘The King,’ it
said, ‘was desirous for peace on honourable terms. The miserable
condition of the Continent, to which allusion had been made, was not
due to his policy: a system devised for the destruction of British
commerce had recoiled on its authors and their instruments.’ But the
distress even of his enemies was no source of pleasure to the King, and
he would treat at once, if the representatives of Sweden, Portugal,
Sicily, and Spain were admitted to take part in the negotiations. It
was to be specially stipulated that the ‘Central Junta of Government’
at Madrid was to be a party to any treaty of peace.
The two British notes brought the replies from St. Petersburg and Paris
that Canning expected. Count Romanzoff, writing for the Czar, could
only state that his master had acknowledged Joseph Bonaparte as King
of Spain, and could not recognize the existence of any other legal
authority in that kingdom. But if this point (the only really important
one) could be got over, the Russian Government was ready to treat on a
basis of _Uti Possidetis_, or any other just and honourable terms. The
French reply was, as was natural, couched in very different language.
Napoleon had been irritated by Canning’s sarcastic allusions to the
failure of the Continental System: he thought the tone of the British
note most improper and insulting--‘it comes from the same pen which the
English ministry employs to fabricate the swarm of libels with which it
inundates the Continent. Such language is despicable, and unworthy of
the imperial attention[392].’
[392] Napoleon to Champagny (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,643).
Considering the offensive and bullying tone which Bonaparte was wont
to use to other powers--his note written to Austria a few days before
was a fair example of it--he had little reason to be indignant at the
epigrams of the English minister. Yet the latter might perhaps have
done well to keep his pen under control, and to forget that he was not
writing for the _Anti-Jacobin_, but composing an official document.
Even though Napoleon’s offer was hollow and insincere, it should have
been met with dry courtesy rather than with humorous irony.
Of course Bonaparte refused to treat the Spaniards as a free and equal
belligerent power. He had declared his brother King of Spain, and had
now reached that pitch of blind autolatry in which he regarded his own
fiat as the sole source of legality. In common honour England could
not abandon the insurgents; for the Emperor to allow his brother’s
claim to be ignored was equally impossible. In his present state of
mind he would have regarded such a concession to the enemy as an
acknowledgement of disgraceful defeat. It was obvious that the war must
go on, and when the Emperor suggested that England might treat with him
without stipulating for the admission of the Junta as a party to the
negotiations[393], he must have been perfectly well aware that he was
proposing a dishonourable move which the ministry of Portland could not
possibly make. His suggestions as to a separate treaty with England on
the basis of _Uti Possidetis_ were futile: he intended that they should
be declined, and declined they were. But he had succeeded in his end
of posing before the French nation and the European powers as a lover
of peace, foiled in his devices by the unbending arrogance of Great
Britain. This was all that he had desired, and so far his machinations
attained their object[394].
[393] Napoleon to Champagny (_Nap. Corresp._, 14,643).
[394] It is strange to find that Napier was convinced that
Napoleon had a real desire for peace, and hoped to secure it by
the proposals of October, 1808. He writes (i. 210): ‘The English
ministers asserted that the whole proceeding was an artifice
to sow distrust among his enemies. Yet what enemies were they
among whom he could create this uneasy feeling? Sweden, Sicily,
Portugal! the notion as applied to them was absurd; it is more
probable that he was sincere. He said so at St. Helena, and the
circumstances of the period warrant a belief in that assertion.’
But Napier has failed to see that the design was not to ‘sow
distrust among his enemies.’ The whole business was intended
to influence French public opinion, and in a secondary way the
public opinion of all Europe. Bonaparte wished to pose as a
friend of peace, and to bestow on England the unenviable rôle of
the selfish fomenter of wars. With many simple folk in France and
elsewhere he succeeded, but no Englishman, save one blinded by a
dislike for everything Tory, could have been deceived.
Long before the English replies had been sent off to Champagny and
Romanzoff, the much-delayed campaign on the Ebro had commenced. All
through the months of August and September the French had behaved as if
their adversaries were acting on proper military principles, and might
be expected to throw their whole force on the true objective point.
Jourdan and his colleagues had no reason to foresee that the Spanish
Government would launch out into the hideous series of blunders which,
as a matter of fact, were committed. That no commander-in-chief would
be appointed, that the victorious troops of Baylen would be held back
for weeks in Andalusia, that no strenuous effort would be made to raise
new armies in Leon and the two Castiles, were chances that seemed so
improbable that King Joseph and his advisers did not take them into
consideration. They expected that the Spaniards would mass the armies
of Andalusia, Estremadura, Castile, and Aragon, and endeavour to turn
their left flank on the side of Sanguesa and Pampeluna, or that (the
other rational course) they would send the Asturians, the Andalusians,
and the Castilians to join Blake, and debouch down the line of the
Upper Ebro, from Reynosa on to Vittoria and Miranda. In the first case
70,000, and in the latter case 80,000 men would be flung against one
flank of the French position, and it would be necessary to concentrate
in hot haste in order to hold them back. But, as a matter of fact,
the Spanish forces did not even come up to the front for many weeks,
and when they did appear it was, as we have seen, not in the form of
one great army concentrated for a stroke on a single point, but as a
number of weak and isolated columns, each threatening a different part
of the long line that lay along the Ebro from Miranda to Milagro. When
feeble demonstrations were made against so many separate sections of
his front, Jourdan supposed that they were skilful feints, intended
to cover some serious attack on a weak spot, and acted accordingly,
holding back till the enemy should develop his real plan, and refusing
to commit himself meanwhile to offensive operations on a serious scale.
It must be confessed that the chaotic and inconsequent movements of
the Spaniards bore, to the eye of the observer from the outside,
something like the appearance of a deep plan. On August 27 the Conde
de Montijo, with a column of the Aragonese army, felt his way up the
Ebro as far as the bridge of Alfaro, nearly opposite the extreme left
flank of the French at Milagro. When attacked by Lefebvre-Desnouettes
at the head of a few cavalry and a horse-battery, the Spanish general
refused to stand, and retreated on Tudela. Marshal Moncey then pressed
him with an infantry division, but Montijo again gave back. The French
thought that this move must be a mere diversion, intended to attract
their attention to the side of Aragon, for Montijo had acted with such
extreme feebleness that it was unnatural to suppose that he was making
anything but a feint. They were quite wrong however: Palafox had told
the count to push as far up the Ebro as he could, without any thought
of favouring operations by Blake or Castaños, the former of whom was
at this moment not far in front of Astorga, while the latter was still
at Madrid. Montijo had given way simply because his troops were raw
levies, and because there were no supports behind him nearer than
Saragossa. It was to no effect, therefore, that King Joseph, after the
fighting in front of Alfaro and Tudela, moved his reserves up the river
to Miranda, thinking that the real attack must be coming from that
side. There was no real attack intended, for the enemy had not as yet
brought any considerable force up to the front.
It was not till nearly three weeks later that the Spaniards made
another offensive move. This time Blake was the assailant. On September
10 he had at last concentrated the greater part of his army at
Reynosa--the centre of roads at the source of the Ebro, of which we
have already had to speak on several occasions. He had with him four
divisions of the army of Galicia, as well as a ‘vanguard brigade’ and a
‘reserve brigade’ of picked troops from the same quarter. Close behind
him were 8,000 Asturians under General Acevedo. The whole came to
32,000 men, but there were no more than 400 cavalry with the corps--a
fact which made Blake very anxious to keep to the mountains and to
avoid the plains of Old Castile[395]. He had left behind him in Galicia
and about Astorga more than 10,000 men of new levies, not yet fit to
take the field. There were also some 9,000 Asturians in similar case,
held back within the limits of their own principality[396].
[395] For the organization and state of Blake’s force, see the
Appendix.
[396] The Asturias had raised nineteen new battalions: of these
eight went forward with Blake, and eleven remained behind.
In the elaborate plan of operations which had been sketched out at
Madrid on September 5, it will be remembered that Blake’s army was
intended to co-operate with those of Castaños and of Eguia. But he
paid no attention whatever to the promises which his representative,
Infantado, had made in his name, and executed an entirely different
movement: there was no commander-in-chief to compel him to act in
unison with his colleagues. The Castilian and Estremaduran armies were
not ready, and Castaños had as yet only a feeble vanguard facing the
enemy on the Central Ebro, his rear divisions being still far back,
on the road from Andalusia. Blake neither asked for nor received any
assistance whatever from his colleagues, and set out in the most
light-hearted way to attack 70,000 French with his 32,000 Galicians and
Asturians.
His plan was to threaten Burgos with a small portion of his army,
while with the main body he marched on Bilbao, in order to rouse Biscay
to a second revolt, and to turn the right flank of the French along the
sea-shore. Accordingly he sent his ‘vanguard’ and ‘reserve’ brigades
towards Burgos, by the road that passes by Oña and Briviesca, while
with four complete divisions he moved on Bilbao. On the twentieth his
leading column turned out of that town General Monthion, who was in
garrison there with a weak brigade of details and detachments.
Here at last, as it seemed to Joseph Bonaparte and to Jourdan, was
the long-expected main attack of the Spaniards. Accordingly they
concentrated to their right, with the object of meeting it. Bessières
evacuated Burgos and drew back to the line of the Upper Ebro. He there
replaced the King’s reserve, and the incomplete corps that was forming
at Miranda and Vittoria under the command of Marshal Ney: thus these
troops became available for operations in Biscay. Ney, with two small
infantry divisions, marched on Bilbao by way of Durango: Joseph, with
the reserve, followed him. But when the Marshal reached the Biscayan
capital, the division of Blake’s army[397], which had occupied it for
the last six days, retired and took up a defensive attitude in the
hills above Valmaceda, twenty miles to the west. Here it was joined by
a second division of the Galician army[398], and stood fast in a very
difficult country abounding in strong positions. Ney therefore held
back, unwilling to attack a force that might be 30,000 strong (for
all that he knew) with the 10,000 men that he had brought. Clearly he
must wait for King Joseph and the reserve, in case he should find that
Blake’s whole army was in front of him.
[397] The 4th Galician Division under the Marquis of Portago.
[398] The 3rd Galician Division under General Riquelme.
But the King and his corps failed to appear: Bessières had sent to
inform him that Blake, far from having moved his whole army on to
Bilbao, had still got the bulk of it in positions from which he could
march down the Ebro and attack Miranda and Vittoria. This was to a
certain extent true, for the first and second divisions of the Galician
army were now at Villarcayo, on the southern side of the Cantabrian
hills, a spot from which they could march either northward to Bilbao
or eastward to Miranda. Moreover, Blake’s ‘reserve’ and ‘vanguard’
brigades were still about Frias and Oña, whither they had been pushed
before the French evacuated Burgos. Bessières, therefore, had much to
say in favour of his view, that the point of danger was in the Ebro
valley and not in Biscay. King Joseph, convinced by his arguments,
left Ney unreinforced, and took post with the 6,000 men of the central
reserve at Vittoria. His conclusion that Bilbao was not the true
objective of the Spaniards was soon confirmed by other movements of
the enemy. The feeble columns of Castaños were at last showing on the
Central Ebro, and Palafox was on the move on the side of Aragon.
Under the idea that all Blake’s Biscayan expedition had been no more
than a feint and a diversion, and that the real blow would be struck
on the Ebro, Jourdan and the King now directed Ney to come back from
Bilbao and to take up his old positions. The Marshal obeyed: leaving
General Merlin with 3,000 men in the Biscayan capital, he returned with
7,000 bayonets to La Guardia, on the borders of Alava and Navarre. His
old head quarters at Logroño, beyond the Ebro, had been occupied by the
head of one of Castaños’s columns. He did not attack this force, but
merely encamped opposite it, on the northern bank of the river [October
5][399].
[399] All these moves are best described in Marshal Jourdan’s
_Mémoires_ (edited by Grouchy; Paris, 1899), pp. 71-5.
[Illustration: Part of Northern Spain.]
It is now time to review the position and forces of the Spanish
armies, which were at last up in the fighting line. Blake’s 32,000
Asturians[400] and Galicians were divided into two masses, at Valmaceda
and Villarcayo, on the two sides of the Cantabrian hills. They were
within three marches of each other, and the whole could be turned
either against Biscay or against Vittoria, as the opportunity might
demand. But between Blake and the central divisions of the Spanish
army there was a vast gap. This, at a later period of the campaign,
was filled up by bringing forward the 12,000 men of the Estremaduran
army to Burgos: but this force, insufficient as it was for the purpose,
had not reached the front: in the middle of October it had not even
arrived at Madrid[401]. There seems to have been at Burgos nothing
more than a detached battalion or two, which had occupied the place
when Bessières drew back towards the Ebro[402]. Of all the Spanish
forces, the nearest organized corps on Blake’s right consisted of
the main body of this same army of Castile. This division, for it was
no more, consisted of about 10,000 or 11,000 men: it contained a few
regular corps (Regiment of Cantabria, a battalion of Grenadiers, the
Leon Militia) which had been lent to it by the army of Andalusia, and
twelve raw Leonese and Castilian battalions, of the new levy which
Cuesta had raised. There were also some 800 cavalry with it. The
commander was now Pignatelli, for Eguia (who had originally been told
off to the post) had fallen sick. This small and inefficient force was
at Logroño on the Central Ebro, having taken possession of that place
when it was evacuated by Marshal Ney in the last week of September.
A little further down the river lay the 2nd Division of the army of
Andalusia, which, under the orders of Coupigny, had taken a creditable
part in the battle of Baylen. Released by the Junta of Seville in
September, it had at last gone forward and joined Castaños. But it was
somewhat changed in composition, for three of its original fourteen
battalions had been withdrawn[403] and sent to Catalonia, while three
new Andalusian corps had replaced them. Its commander was now General
Grimarest, Coupigny having been told off to another sphere of duty. The
division numbered about 6,000 bayonets, with 400 or 500 cavalry, and
a single battery. It occupied Lodosa, on the north bank of the Ebro,
some twelve miles down-stream from Logroño. Quite close to its right
there lay at Calahorra the 4th Division of the army of Andalusia, under
La Peña--a somewhat stronger force--about 7,500 foot, with 400 horse
and two batteries. The only remaining division of Castaños’ ‘Army of
the Centre’ consisted of the Murcian and Valencian corps under Llamas.
This had entered Madrid 8,000 strong on August 13, but one of its
regiments had been left behind at Aranjuez to guard the Junta. It now
consisted of no more than 7,000 men, and lay at Tudela, in close touch
with La Peña’s Andalusians. The total, therefore, of Castaños’ army
in the second half of October did not amount to more than 31,000 foot
and 3,000 horse. The 1st and 3rd divisions of the Andalusian army,
long detained beyond the Morena by the Junta of Seville, were but just
commencing to arrive at Madrid: of their 15,000 men less than half
reached the front in November, in time to take their share in the
rout of Tudela. Even these were not yet at Castaños’ disposition in
October[404].
[400] Acevedo’s 8,000 Asturians joined Blake at Villarcayo on
Oct. 11 (see his dispatch in _Madrid Gazette_, Oct. 25).
[401] I gather from _Madrid Gazette_ (Oct. 21, p. 1,333) that it
was still organizing in and about Badajoz on Oct. 6, and did not
begin to march till later.
[402] Volunteers of Benavente from the army of Castile, and Tuy
Militia of Blake’s army.
[403] These three Granadan battalions had been sent, along with
the rest of the levies of that kingdom, to form part of the
division which Reding was leading to Catalonia. They had been
replaced by the new Andalusian battalions of Baylen, Navas de
Tolosa, and 5th of Seville.
[404] Castaños himself, in his exculpatory memoir, will not allow
that he ever had more than 26,000 men, even including the belated
troops of the 1st and 3rd Andalusian divisions which came up in
November.
The right wing of the Spanish army of the Ebro consisted of the raw
and half-organized masses composing the army of Aragon. Palafox had
succeeded in getting together a great body of men from that loyal
province, but he had not been able to form them into a force fit to
take the field. Owing to the way in which Aragon had been stripped
of regular troops before the commencement of the war, there was no
solid body round which the new levies could be organized, and no
supply of trained officers to drill or discipline the thousands of
eager recruits. It would seem that in all no less than 32,000 were
raised, but no force in any degree approaching these numbers took the
field. Every village and every mountain valley had contributed its
_partida_ or its company, but with the best of wills Palafox had not
yet succeeded in incorporating all these small and scattered units into
regiments and brigades. Many of them had not even been armed: very few
had been properly clothed and equipped. Nevertheless no fewer than
thirty-nine battalions in a state of greater or less organization were
in existence by the end of October. They varied in strength to the most
extraordinary degree: many were no more than 300 strong[405], one or
two were enormous and ran up to 1,300 or 1,400 bayonets. Of the whole
thirty-nine battalions only three belonged to the old regular army,
and these corps--whose total numbers only reached 2,350 men--had been
largely diluted with raw recruits[406]. Of the remainder some belonged
to the _tercios_ who had taken arms in June, and had served through
the first siege of Saragossa, but a large number had only been raised
after Verdier had retired from before the city in August. It would seem
that the total of Palafox’s Aragonese, who went to the front for the
campaign of October and November, was about 12,000 men. The rest were
left behind at Saragossa, being not yet organized or equipped for field
service.
[405] See the tables in Arteche, iii. 479, 480. The Regiment of
Calatayud was only 310 strong, that of Doyle 306, and that of
Navarre 302; on the other hand the 2nd Volunteers of Aragon had
1,302, the 1st Volunteers of Huesca 1,319, and the overgrown
‘Aragonese Fusiliers’ no less than 1,836.
[406] 3rd Spanish Guards 609, Estremadura 600, 1st Volunteers of
Aragon 1,141. These figures are from a return of Nov. 1, sent to
England by Colonel Doyle, then in high favour with Palafox. It
may be found in the Record Office.
But Palafox had also in his army troops which did not belong to his
native kingdom. These were the Murcians and Valencians of Saint March
and O’Neille, who after taking part in the campaign against Moncey,
had not marched with Llamas to Madrid, but had turned off to aid in
raising the siege of Saragossa. Saint March had brought with him
fourteen battalions and a cavalry regiment, O’Neille had with him three
more infantry corps. The total of their force reached 11,200 bayonets
and 620 sabres. Adding these to the best of his own Aragonese levies,
Palafox sent out 23,000 men: of these only about 800 were cavalry[407].
A force such as this, backed by the mass of unorganized levies at
Saragossa, was barely sufficient to maintain a defensive position on
the frontiers of Aragon. But the Junta, with great unwisdom, came to
the conclusion that Palafox was strong enough not only to hold his own
against the French in his immediate front, but to spare some troops
to reinforce the army of Catalonia. By their orders he told off six
battalions--some 4,000 men--who were placed under the command of his
brother, the Marquis of Lazan, and dispatched to Lerida with the object
of aiding the Captain-General of Catalonia to besiege Duhesme in
Barcelona.
[407] The Valencian and Murcian contributions to the army of
Aragon consisted of the following troops:--One old line regiment
of three battalions (Volunteers of Castile), the militia
battalion of Soria, and of new levies the 1st and 2nd Volunteers
of Murcia, the 2nd Volunteers of Valencia, the regiments of Turia
(three battalions), Alicante (three battalions), Segorbe (two
battalions), Borbon, Chelva, and Cazadores de Fernando VII, the
Dragoons of Numancia (an old corps), and two squadrons of new
Valencian cavalry. I get these names partly from the return of
Nov. 1 in the Record Office at London, partly from Saint March’s
return of his killed and wounded at Tudela. Some more Murcian
corps started to join Palafox, but were not in time for Tudela,
though they took part in the second defence of Saragossa: viz.
3rd and 5th Volunteers of Murcia, the regiment of Florida Blanca,
and 1st and 2nd Tiradores of Murcia. Their start from Murcia on
Oct. 13 is noted in the _Madrid Gazette_ of 1808 (p. 1,336).
Nor was this the only force that was drawn off from the main theatre
of the war in order to take part in helping the Catalans, who had
hitherto proved quite strong enough to help themselves. The Junta
directed Reding, the victor of Baylen, to take command of all the
Granadan troops in the army of Andalusia, and lead them to Tortosa
with the object of joining Lazan. With Reding there marched nearly
15,000 men[408]: to raise this force all the regiments belonging to the
kingdom of Granada had been drafted out from the 1st and 2nd Divisions
of Castaños’ army, which were thus mutilated before they reached the
Ebro. To those comparatively veteran troops were added eight new
battalions of raw levies--the regiments of Baza, Almeria, Loxa, and
Santa Fé. Starting on their long march from Granada on October 8, the
head of Reding’s column had only reached Murcia on October 22, and was
thus hopelessly distant from any point where it could have been useful
when the campaign began[409]. Nor was this the last detachment which
the Junta directed on Catalonia: it sent thither part of the prisoners
from Lisbon, whom the Convention of Cintra had delivered--3,500 of the
men who had once formed the division of Caraffa. Laguna, who now held
the command, landed from English transports at La Rapita near Tortosa
on October 25, and marched from thence on Tarragona[410].
[408] Just 14,970, according to the details given in the _Madrid
Gazette_ for Oct. 12 (p. 1,379). See my Appendix on the Spanish
forces in Oct.-Nov.
[409] _Madrid Gazette_, Oct. 28 (p. 1,381).
[410] Ibid., Nov. 1 (p. 1,407).
It is safe to say that of these 23,000 men transferred to Catalonia
from Aragon, Granada, and Portugal, every man ought to have been
pushed forward to help Castaños on the Ebro, and not distracted to the
side-issue at Barcelona. It was mad to send them thither when the main
force facing Jourdan and King Joseph did not yet amount to 75,000 men.
Catalonia, with such small aid as the Balearic Islands could give, was
strong enough to defend herself against the motley hordes of Duhesme
and Reille.
At the moment when the feeble offensive of Castaños and Palafox began,
on the line of the Ebro, the French had some 65,000 men ranged opposite
them[411], while a reserve of 10,000 was formed at Bayonne, and the
leading columns of the ‘Grand Army’ from Germany were only ten or
twelve marches away. Napoleon had, by a decree issued on September
7, recast the form of his army of Spain. It was in the future to
consist of seven army corps. The 1st, 4th, and 5th were to be composed
of old divisions from the Rhine and the Elbe. Of the forces already
on the spot Bessières’ troops were to form the 2nd Corps, Moncey’s
the 3rd, the still incomplete divisions under Ney the 6th. The army
of Catalonia, where St. Cyr was superseding Reille, formed the 7th
Corps[412]. Junot’s army from Portugal, when it once more appeared
upon the scene, made the 8th, but in September Napoleon did not yet
know of its fate, and it only received its number and its place in the
host at a much later date. Many alterations of detail were made in the
brigades and divisions that formed the new 2nd and 3rd Corps. All the
_bataillons de marche_ were abolished, and their men drafted into the
old regiments. The fifteen ‘provisional regiments,’ which had composed
the whole of Moncey’s and a considerable part of Bessières’ strength,
were taken into the regular establishment of the army, and renumbered
as the 114th-120th of the Line and the 33rd Léger, two provisional
regiments being told off to form each of the new bodies[413]. There was
a certain amount of shifting of units, but in the main the brigades and
divisions of these two corps remained intact.
[411] The figures given by Jourdan in his _Mémoires_ seem
quite accurate, and are borne out by all the details in _Nap.
Corresp._; they are:--
Corps of Bessières [2nd Corps] 17,597
Corps of Moncey [3rd Corps] 20,747
Corps of Ney [6th Corps], incomplete 8,957
The King’s general reserve 6,088
Garrisons of Navarre and Biscay 11,559
------
64,948
[412] It was originally to be called the 5th, but this title was
taken from it, in order that Mortier’s corps might keep its old
number.
[413] For their distribution see p. 110.
On or about October 8-10 Bessières lay at Miranda and Murguia, guarding
against any possible descent of Blake from Villarcayo upon the Upper
Ebro. Ney was at La Guardia, facing Pignatelli’s Castilians, who
occupied his old head quarters at Logroño. Moncey had thrown back his
left to guard against a possible descent of Palafox upon Navarre, and
was behind the line of the river Aragon, with his right at Estella,
his centre at Falces and Tafalla, and his left facing Sanguesa, where
it was opposed by the advanced division of the army of Palafox under
O’Neille. For the Captain-General of Aragon, pleased with a plan
proposed to him by Colonel Doyle, the English military attaché in his
camp, had resolved to make a long turning movement under the roots of
the Pyrenees, exactly parallel to that which Blake was executing at the
other end of the line. With this object he sent out from Saragossa,
on September 29, O’Neille with a division of Aragonese strengthened
by a few Murcian and Valencian battalions, and numbering some 9,000
bayonets. This detachment, marching in a leisurely way, reached
Sanguesa on the Upper Aragon, but there stopped short, on getting
information that Moncey’s corps lay before it in some strength. Palafox
then sent up in support a second division, Saint March’s Murcians
and Valencians, who advanced to Egea and there halted. There was
considerable bickering all through the second half of October on this
line, but Sanguesa remained in the hands of the Spaniards, Moncey being
too much distracted by the movements of Castaños in the direction of
Tudela to dare to concentrate his whole force for a blow at Saint March
and O’Neille. The latter, on the other hand, had realized that if they
pressed further forward towards Pampeluna, as their commander-in-chief
had originally intended, they would leave Moncey so much in their rear
that he could cut them off both from Saragossa and from the Army of the
Centre. Here then matters had come to a deadlock; but the position was
all in favour of the French, who lay compactly in the centre, while
O’Neille and Saint March were separated from Castaños by a gap of sixty
miles, and Blake on the other wing was about seventy (as the crow
flies) from the army of Castile.
SECTION VII: CHAPTER II
THE PRELIMINARY FIGHTING: ARRIVAL OF NAPOLEON
By the middle of October the French and Spanish armies were in presence
of each other along the whole line of the Ebro, and it seemed certain
that one or other of them must at last take the offensive. Both were
still in expectation of reinforcements, but those which the Spaniards
could expect to receive within the next few weeks were comparatively
unimportant, while their adversaries knew that more than 100,000 men
from Germany were due at Bayonne in the last days of October. Clearly
it was for Castaños and his colleagues to make a move now or never. The
wasted months of August and September could not be recalled, but there
was still time to attack Bessières, Ney, and Moncey, before the arrival
of the Emperor and the three veteran corps from the Elbe.
Matters lay thus when the Spanish generals resolved on a perfectly new
and wildly impracticable scheme. Castaños had come to the conclusion--a
thoroughly sound one--that his 34,000 men were too few to make a
frontal attack on the French on the line between Miranda and Calahorra.
He left Madrid on October 13, deeply chagrined to find that the Central
Junta had no intention of making him commander-in-chief. Instead of
being able to issue orders to the other generals, he must meet them on
equal terms and endeavour to cajole them into adopting a common plan
of operations. Accordingly he rode to Saragossa to visit Palafox, and
after long and not very friendly converse drew out a new plan. The Army
of the Centre was to shift itself down the Ebro, leaving the troops of
Pignatelli (the ‘Army of Castile’) and of Grimarest (the 2nd Andalusian
division) to ‘contain’ Ney and Bessières. The rest were to concentrate
at Tudela, where they were to be joined by as many battalions of the
Aragonese levies at Saragossa as could take the field. With some 25,000
or 30,000 men at the highest estimate, Castaños and Palafox were to
fall upon Moncey’s flank at the bridge of Caparrosa. Meanwhile O’Neille
and Saint March, with the advanced divisions of the army of Aragon,
were to break up from Sanguesa, march round Pampeluna by the foot-hills
of the Pyrenees, and place themselves across the road to France. Moncey
was thus to be surrounded, and a second Baylen was to ensue! Indeed,
if Blake could be persuaded to push forward once more to Bilbao, and
thence into Guipuzcoa, the whole army of King Joseph (as it was hoped)
might be cut off and made prisoners. Eighty thousand men, according
to this strange scheme, starting from bases 200 miles apart, were to
surround 65,000 French in a most difficult mountain country. Meanwhile
the enormous gap between Blake’s right and Castaños’ left was to
remain wholly unguarded, for the army of Estremadura was still in the
far distance; while nothing was to be left opposite Bessières and Ney
save Pignatelli’s disorderly ‘Army of Castile,’ and Grimarest’s 6,000
Andalusians.
But before the scheme for the cutting off of Moncey had even begun
to be carried out, Castaños and Palafox had a rude awakening. They
were themselves attacked by the army which they were so confidently
proposing to surround. King Joseph, emboldened by the long delay of his
adversaries in advancing, had several times discussed with Jourdan,
Bessières, and Ney schemes for taking the offensive. Indeed he had
sketched out in September no less than five separate plans for bringing
the enemy to an action, and it is probable that he might have tried one
of them if he had been allowed a free hand[414]. Napoleon, however,
having determined to come to Spain in person, put an embargo on any
comprehensive scheme for an advance on Madrid, and restricted his
brother to minor operations.
[414] The paper containing them was captured in Joseph’s carriage
at Vittoria five years later. It will be found printed in full in
Napier (Appendix to vol. i, pp. 453, 454).
But there was nothing in the Emperor’s instructions which forbade
a blow on a small scale, if the Spaniards should grow too daring.
There was now a good excuse for such a move, for both Pignatelli and
Grimarest had been trespassing beyond the Ebro. They seem to have moved
forward quite contrary to the intentions of Castaños, who at this
moment was proposing to refuse battle with his left and centre, and to
draw the bulk of his army southward to Tudela. But his two divisional
generals pushed so far forward, that they at last drew upon themselves
most undesired attentions from the French marshals. Pignatelli
had thrown troops across the Ebro to Viana: Grimarest had pushed
detachments still further forward into Navarre, to Mendavia, Sesma,
and Lerin. Joseph and Jourdan resolved to drive back these outlying
posts, and to find out what was behind them. About 25,000 men were put
in movement against the 16,000 Spaniards who had so rashly crossed the
river. Moncey marched against Grimarest [Oct. 25-6] with two divisions:
Ney with a similar force fell upon Pignatelli, while Bessières sent a
division down the southern bank of the Ebro by Haro and Briones, to
threaten the line of retreat of the army of Castile across the bridge
of Logroño.
Against such forces the Spaniards could do nothing: on the twenty-fifth
Ney marched on Viana, and drove in Pignatelli’s advanced guard. On the
following day he opened a fierce cannonade upon Logroño from across the
river, while at the same time Bonnet’s division, sent by Bessières,
marched upon the town from the hither side of the Ebro. Pignatelli was
a craven, and his Castilian levies proved to be the worst of all the
material which the Spaniards had brought to the front. General and
army vanished in the night, without even stopping to blow up the great
bridge, though they had mined it and laid the train in due form. Ney’s
officers crossing at dawn found all prepared, except the sappers who
should have applied the match[415]! Neither Ney nor Bonnet got in touch
with the flying horde: but in sheer panic Pignatelli abandoned his
guns by the roadside, and did not stop till he had joined Castaños at
Cintruenigo, near Tudela. His hurried retreat was wholly unnecessary,
for the French did not move beyond Logroño, and Castaños was able to
send out next morning a brigade which picked up the deserted guns
and brought them in without molestation. Rightly indignant, the
Commander-in-chief removed Pignatelli from his post, and distributed
his demoralized battalions among the divisions of Grimarest, La Peña,
and Llamas[416], leaving in separate existence only a single brigade
of six battalions under Cartaojal, which mainly consisted of the few
regular battalions that had been lent to Pignatelli to stiffen his raw
levies. Thus the ‘Army of Castile’ ceased to exist[417].
[415] For an account of this curious affair see the _Mémoires_
of General Boulart, then an artillery officer under Ney, who
discovered the flight of the Castilians and the abandoned mine
below the bridge (pp. 202, 203). Oddly enough he gives the wrong
date for the incident, Oct. 30 instead of Oct. 27.
[416] I cannot find any details as to their redistribution.
[417] See Colonel Graham’s _Diary_, p. 275 (Oct. 30). He reached
Castaños’ camp on that day.
On the same day that the Castilians were routed by Ney, the 2nd
Andalusian division was severely handled by Moncey. When that Marshal
advanced against Lerin and Sesma with the divisions of Morlot and
Maurice Mathieu, Grimarest withdrew beyond the Ebro, abandoning by
some oversight his vanguard. This force, commanded by a resolute
officer, Colonel Cruz-Murgeon, was enveloped at Lerin by the division
of Morlot[418]. The colonel shut himself up in the mediaeval castle of
that town, and defended himself for two days, in hopes that he might
be succoured. But his chief had fled beyond the river, and could not
be induced to return by any appeals. On October 27 Cruz-Murgeon had to
surrender, after two-thirds of his troops had been killed or wounded.
Their obstinate defence was the more creditable because they were all
new levies, consisting of a single Andalusian battalion (_Tiradores
de Cadiz_) and a few Catalan volunteers. Marshal Moncey then occupied
Lodosa and its bridge, but made no attempt to follow Grimarest, who was
able to rejoin his chief without further loss.
[418] Jourdan in his _Mémoires_ (p. 77) says that it was Morlot
who acted against Lerin, and I follow him rather than those who
state that it was Maurice Mathieu.
Castaños was greatly disturbed by the vigorous offensive movement of
Ney and Moncey. Seeing the French so strong and so confident, he was
struck with sudden qualms as to the advisability of the movement on
Caparrosa and Pampeluna, which he and Palafox had agreed to carry out.
He proposed to his colleague that they should drop their plan for
surrounding Moncey, and attempt no more than an attack on his flanks at
Caparrosa and Sanguesa. Meanwhile he concentrated the greater part of
his army at Calahorra and Tudela [Oct. 29]. The initiative had passed
to the French, and if Ney and Moncey did not seize the opportunity for
an advance against the Army of the Centre, it was merely because they
knew that Napoleon was now close at hand--he reached Bayonne four days
later--and would not wish them to attempt anything decisive without his
orders.
Meanwhile there arrived from Madrid a deputation from the Supreme
Junta, consisting of Francisco Palafox (the younger brother of the
Captain-General), of Coupigny, Reding’s colleague at the victory of
Baylen, and the intriguing Conde de Montijo. The Junta were indignant
that Castaños had not made bricks without straw. Though they had not
given him any appreciable reinforcements, they had expected him to
attack the French and win a great victory beyond the Ebro. Conscious
that the deputies came to him in no friendly spirit, Castaños
nevertheless received them with all respect, and laid before them the
difficulties of his situation. Joseph Palafox came up from Saragossa
to join the conference, and after a long and stormy meeting--this was
the conference which so disgusted Colonel Graham[419]--it was decided
to resume offensive operations [November 5]. The idea was a mad one,
for six days before the council of war was held two French army corps,
those of Victor and Lefebvre, had crossed the Bidassoa and entered
Spain. There were now 110,000 instead of 65,000 enemies in front of the
Spanish armies. Moreover, and this was still more important, Napoleon
himself had reached Bayonne on November 3.
[419] Cf. p. 366 and Graham’s _Diary_, p. 276.
Nevertheless it was resolved once more to push forward and fall upon
Moncey. Castaños was to leave one division at Calahorra, and to bring
the rest of his army over the Ebro to attack the bridge of Caparrosa:
O’Neille and Saint March were to come down from Sanguesa to co-operate
with him: Joseph Palafox was to bring up the Aragonese reserves from
Saragossa. The only sign of prudence that appeared was that the council
of war agreed not to commence the attack on Moncey till they had
learnt how Blake and the army of Galicia were faring in Biscay. For
that general had, as they knew, commenced some days before his second
advance on Bilbao. Since the armies on the Central Ebro hung back,
it was in the distant region on the coast that the first important
collision between the Spaniards and the French reinforcements from
Germany was to take place. For a fortnight more there was comparative
quiet in front of Tudela and Caparrosa. Meanwhile Castaños, prostrated
by an attack of the gout[420], took to his bed, and the Army of the
Centre was abandoned for a few days to the tender mercies of the
deputation from Madrid.
[420] According to Toreño; but Graham, who was present in the
camp, calls it rheumatism.
There is a strange contrast when we turn from the study of the rash
and inconsiderate plans of the Spanish generals to mark the movements
of Napoleon. The Emperor had left Erfurt on October 14: on the
nineteenth he had reached Paris, where he stayed for ten days, busied
not only with the ‘logistics’ of moving the columns of the ‘Grand Army’
across France, but with all manner of administrative work. He had also
to arrange the details of the conscription: though he had raised in
1807 the enormous mass of new levies of which we had to speak in an
earlier chapter, he now asked for 140,000 men more[421]. Of these,
80,000 were to be drawn from the classes of 1806-9, which had already
contributed so heavily to the army. The balance was to be taken from
the class of 1810, whose members were still fifteen months below the
legal age. From these multitudes of young soldiers every regiment
of the army of Spain was to be brought up to full strength, but the
majority were destined to reinforce the depleted armies of Germany and
Italy, which had been thinned of veterans for the Peninsular War.
[421] See _Nap. Corresp._, 14,312 (xvii. 505, 506), and compare
with 14,601 (xviii. 141, 142).
On October 25 Bonaparte presided at the opening of the Legislative
Assembly, and made a characteristic harangue to its members. He
painted the situation of the Empire in the most roseate colours. ‘The
sight of this great French family, once torn apart by differences of
opinion and domestic hatreds, but now so tranquil, prosperous, and
united, had sensibly touched his soul. To be happy himself he only
required the assurance that France also was happy. Law, finance, the
Church, every branch of the state, seemed in the most flourishing
condition. The Empire was strong in its alliances with Russia, the
Confederation of the Rhine, Denmark, Switzerland, and Naples. Great
Britain, it was true, had landed some troops in the Peninsula, and
stirred up insurrections there. But this was a blessing in disguise.
The Providence which had so constantly protected the arms of France,
had deigned to strike the English ministry with blindness, and to
induce them to present an army on the Continent where it was doomed to
inevitable destruction. In a few days the Emperor would place himself
at the head of his troops, and, with the aid of God, would crown in
Madrid the true King of Spain, and plant his eagles on the forts of
Lisbon[422].’
[422] _Discours prononcé le 25 oct._ (_Nap. Corresp._, xviii. 20,
21).
Four days later Bonaparte quitted Paris, and passing hastily through
Orleans and Bordeaux reached Bayonne at three o’clock in the morning
of November 3. The corps of Victor and Lefebvre, with two divisions
of dragoons, were several days ahead of him, and had already crossed
the Bidassoa. The Imperial Guard and the divisions destined for
Ney[423], as well as a great mass of cavalry, were just converging on
the frontier. Mortier’s corps was not very far off: Junot’s army from
Portugal had already landed at Quiberon and Rochefort, and was being
directed on Bordeaux. All the machinery for the great blow was now
ready.
[423] Those of Marchand and Bisson, forming the old 6th Corps,
with which he fought at Jena and Friedland.
Napoleon profoundly despised the Spanish army and the Spanish generals.
His correspondence is full of contemptuous allusions to them: ‘ever
since he served at Toulon he knew them for the worst troops in Europe.’
‘Nothing could be so bad as the Spaniards--they are mere rabble--6,000
French can beat 20,000 of them.’ ‘The whole Spanish army could not
turn 15,000 good troops out of a position that had been properly
occupied[424].’ Nevertheless he had determined to run no risks: the
second Peninsular campaign must not end like the first, in a fiasco
and a humiliating retreat. It was for this reason that the Emperor had
massed more than 250,000 good troops against the tumultuary levies of
the Junta--a force which, in his private opinion, was far more than
enough to sweep the whole of his adversaries into the sea before the
year 1808 should have run out. Any expedition in which he himself took
part must, for the sake of his prestige, be conducted from beginning
to end in a series of spectacular triumphs. It was better to use a
larger army than was absolutely necessary, in order to make his blows
sufficiently heavy, and to get the Spanish business over as rapidly
as possible. If the whole Peninsula were overrun in a few months, and
resistance had been completely beaten down ere the winter was over,
there would be no chance of that intervention on the part of Austria
which was the only danger on the political horizon[425].
[424] Napoleon to Joseph Bonaparte, to Caulaincourt, to Eugène
Beauharnais (vols. xvii, xviii of _Nap. Corresp._).
[425] The clearest proof which I find in the _Napoleon
Correspondance_ of the Emperor’s intention to sweep over the
whole Peninsula, with a single rush, is that already in November
he was assembling at Bayonne naval officers who were to take
charge of the port of Lisbon, and to reorganize the Portuguese
fleet. This was a little premature! (See Napoleon to Decrès,
Minister of Marine, _Nap. Corresp._, 14,514, vol. xviii.)
Napoleon, therefore, drew out his plans not merely for a triumphant
advance on Madrid, but for the complete annihilation of the Spanish
armies on the Ebro and in Biscay. From a careful study of the
dispatches of his lieutenants, he had realized the existence of the
great gap in the direction of Burgos between the armies of Blake and
of Castaños. His plan of campaign, stated shortly, was to burst in
through this gap, so as to separate the Spanish armies on his left
and right, and then to wheel troops outwards in both directions so as
to surround and annihilate them. Both Blake and Palafox were, at this
moment, playing the game that he most desired. The further that the
former pressed onward into Biscay, the nearer that the latter drew to
the roots of the Pyrenees, the more did they expose themselves to being
encompassed by great masses of troops breaking out from Burgos and
Logroño to fall upon their flank and rear. When the Emperor drew up his
scheme he knew that Blake was in front of Zornoza, and that the bulk
of the army of Aragon was at Sanguesa. Meanwhile the French advanced
divisions were in possession of Miranda, Logroño, and Lodosa, the three
chief passages over the Upper Ebro. A glance at the map is sufficient
to show that the moment that the Emperor and his reserves reached
Vittoria the Spanish armies were in the most perilous position. It
would suffice to order a march on Burgos on the one hand and on Tudela
on the other, and then the troops of Aragon and Galicia would not
merely be cut off from any possible retreat on Madrid, but run grave
danger of annihilation. A further advance of the French would probably
thrust the one against the Pyrenees, and roll the other into the Bay of
Biscay.
For this reason it was the Emperor’s wish that his lieutenants should
refrain from attacking Blake and Palafox till he himself was ready to
march on Burgos. For any premature advance against the Spaniards might
force them to retreat from their dangerous advanced positions, and fall
back the one on Reynosa the other on Saragossa, where they would be
much less exposed.
The distribution of the ‘Grand Army’ was to be as follows. Lefebvre
with the 4th Corps was to present himself in front of Blake between
Durango and Zornoza, and to hold him fast without pressing him. Moncey
with the 3rd Corps, in a similar way, was to ‘contain’ Palafox and
Castaños from his posts at Lodosa, Caparrosa, and Tafalla. Meanwhile
Victor, with the newly arrived 1st Corps, was to endeavour to get
into Blake’s rear, by the road Vittoria--Murguia--Orduña. The main
body of the army, consisting of the troops of Bessières and Ney, King
Joseph’s reserve, the Imperial Guard, and four divisions of cavalry,
was to march on Burgos. Napoleon knew that there was no large body
of Spaniards in that place: he expected to find there Pignatelli’s
‘Army of Castile,’ but this force (as we have seen) had ceased to
exist, having been drafted with ignominy into the ranks of the army
of Andalusia[426]. As a matter of fact Burgos was now occupied by a
new force from the second line--the long-expected army of Estremadura,
some 12,000 strong, which had at last come up from Madrid and taken
its place at the front. But Napoleon’s reasoning still held good: any
Spanish army that might chance to be at Burgos must be overwhelmed by
the enormous mass of troops that was about to be hurled upon it. The
moment that it was disposed of, Ney with the 6th Corps was to wheel
to the east, and march by Aranda and Soria, so as to place himself
between Castaños and Palafox and Madrid. Then he would turn their flank
at Tarazona and Tudela, and--in conjunction with Moncey--drive them
northward against the Pyrenees. In a similar way, upon the other flank,
the 2nd Corps was to wheel to the north-west and march from Burgos on
Reynosa, there to intercept Blake, if he had not already been cut off
by Victor’s shorter turning movement. Meanwhile the Emperor with the
rest of his army, followed by the new reserves (Mortier’s corps and
other troops) which were due from France, would march straight from
Burgos on Madrid, force the defiles of the Somosierra and Guadarrama,
and seize the Spanish capital. He was well aware that there would be
no serious hostile force in front of him, since the armies of Blake,
Palafox, and Castaños were all provided for. He does not seem to have
known of the army of Estremadura, or to have had any idea that the
English forces from Portugal might conceivably be on their way to
cover Madrid. There is no mention of Sir John Moore and his host in the
imperial dispatches till December 5.
[426] Napoleon to Bessières, Nov. 6: ‘J’ai vu vos dépêches du 5
novembre sur l’existence d’un corps de 24,000 hommes à Burgos.
Si cela est, ce ne peut être que 12,000 hommes de l’armée de
Castille qui ont évacué Logroño, et qui ne sont pas en cas de
faire tête à 3,000 ou 4,000 de vos gens’ (_Nap. Corresp._,
14,443, xviii. 38).
All being ready, Bonaparte rode out of Bayonne on November 4, having
stayed there only thirty-six hours. Before leaving he had received
one vexatious piece of news: Lefebvre, in direct disobedience to his
orders, had attacked Blake on October 31, and forced him back beyond
Bilbao. This made the plan for the cutting off of the army of Galicia a
little more difficult, since the Spaniards were now forty miles further
back, and not nearly so much exposed as they had been hitherto. But it
was still not impossible that Victor might succeed in circumventing
them, and forcing them into the Bay of Biscay.
It is impossible to withhold our admiration from the Emperor’s simple
yet all-embracing plan of operations. It is true that the campaign
was made more easy by the fact that he was dealing with raw and
undisciplined armies and inexpert generals. It is also clear that he
rightly reckoned on having two men in the field against every one whom
the Spaniards could produce. But the excellence of a scheme is not to
be judged merely by the difficulties in its way; and military genius
can be displayed in dealing with an easy as well as with a dangerous
problem. Half a dozen other plans for conducting the invasion of Spain
might have been drawn up, but it is impossible to see that any better
one could have been constructed. In its main lines it was carried out
with complete success: the armies of the Junta were scattered to the
winds, and Madrid fell almost without a blow.
It was only when the capital had been occupied, and the troops of
Blake and Belvedere, of Castaños and Palafox were flying devious over
half the provinces of Spain, that the difficulties of the Peninsular
War began to develop themselves. Napoleon had never before had any
experience of the character of guerilla warfare, or the kind of
resistance that can be offered by a proud and revengeful nation which
has made up its mind never to submit to the conqueror. In his complete
ignorance of Spain and the Spaniards, he imagined that he had a very
simple campaign to conduct. The subjugation of the Peninsula was to
him an ordinary military problem, like the invasion of Lombardy or of
Prussia, and he went forth in cheerful confidence to ‘plant the eagles
of France on the forts of Lisbon,’ and to ‘drive the Britannic leopard
from the soil of the Peninsula, which it defiles by its presence.’ But
the last chapter of this story was to be told not at Lisbon but at
Toulouse: and ‘the Beneficent Providence which had deigned to strike
the British ministry with such blindness that they had been induced to
send an army to the Continent[427],’ had other designs than Bonaparte
supposed.
[427] See page 396.
SECTION VII: CHAPTER III
THE MISFORTUNES OF JOACHIM BLAKE: ZORNOZA AND ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS
The campaign of November 1808 was fought out upon three separate
theatres of war, though every movement of the French armies which
engaged in it formed part of a single plan, and was properly linked to
the operations which were progressing upon other sections of the front.
The working out of Napoleon’s great scheme, therefore, must be dealt
with under three heads--the destruction of Blake’s ‘Army of the Left’
in the north-west; the rout of the armies of Andalusia and Aragon upon
the banks of the Ebro; and the central advance of the Emperor upon
Burgos and Madrid, which completed the plan.
We must first deal with the misfortunes of Blake and his Galician host,
both on chronological grounds--it was he who first felt the weight
of the French arms--and also because Napoleon rightly attached more
importance to the destruction of this, the most formidable of the
Spanish armies, than to the other operations which he was carrying out
at the same moment.
It will be remembered that after his first abortive expedition against
Bilbao, and his retreat before Ney [October 5], Blake had fallen back
to Valmaceda. Finding that he was not pursued, he drew up to that point
the divisions which he had hitherto kept in the upper valley of the
Ebro, and prepared to advance again, this time with his whole army
massed for a bold stroke. On October 11 he again marched into Biscay,
and drove out of Bilbao the division of General Merlin, which Ney
had left behind him to hold the line of the Nervion. On the twelfth
this small force fell back on Zornoza and Durango, and halted at the
latter place, after having been reinforced from King Joseph’s reserve
at Vittoria. Verdier headed the succours, which consisted of three
battalions of the Imperial Guard, two battalions of the 118th Regiment,
two battalions of Joseph’s own Royal Guards, and the 36th Regiment,
which had just come up from France. When strengthened by these 7,000
men, Merlin considered himself able to make a stand, and took up a
strong position in front of Durango, the important point at which the
roads from Bayonne and from Vittoria to Bilbao meet.
When committing himself to his second expedition into Biscay, Blake
was not wholly unaware of the dangers of the step, though he failed
to realize them at their full value, since (in common with the other
Spanish generals) he greatly underrated the strength of the French army
on the Ebro. He intended to carry out his original plan of cutting off
Bessières and King Joseph from their retreat on Bayonne, by forcing
the position of Durango, and seizing the high-road at Bergara; but he
was aware that an advance to that point had its dangers. As long as
his divisions had lain in or about Villarcayo and Valmaceda, he had a
perfectly clear line of retreat westward in the event of a disaster.
But the moment that he pushed forward beyond Bilbao, he could be
attacked in flank and rear by any troops whom the King might send
up from the valley of the Ebro, by the two mountain-roads which run
from Vittoria to the Biscayan capital. One of these is the main route
from Vittoria to Bilbao via Murguia and Orduña. The other is a more
obscure and difficult path, which leads across the rough watershed
from Vittoria by Villareal and Villaro to Bilbao. Aware of the fact
that he might be assailed by either of these two passes, Blake told
off a strong covering force to hold them. Half of Acevedo’s Asturian
division, 4,000 strong, was placed at Orduña: the other half, with
the whole of Martinengo’s 2nd Division of Galicia, 8,500 bayonets in
all, took its post in the direction of Villaro. These detachments
were eminently justifiable, but they had the unfortunate result of
enfeebling the main force that remained available for the stroke at
the French in front of Durango. For that operation Blake could only
count on his 1st, 3rd, and 4th Divisions, as well as the ‘Vanguard’ and
‘Reserve’ Brigades--a total of 18,000 men[428].